Former British Serviceman Charged of Murdering Kenya Woman Shows Up in Court

A suspect has appeared in court as deportation processes commenced in the case of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan woman who was murdered near a UK military installation in 2012.

Purkiss, 38, who is originally from Greater Manchester, was presented at the Westminster court on the last Friday, and told the court he planned to fight the deportation. Sources suggest that he was arrested on the evening of Thursday.

An arrest warrant for the defendant was authorized by a court in Nairobi in September. The state attorneys stated before the Kenyan court that the individual had been accused of a one count, of murder, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to face charges.

Purkiss previously worked as a medical attendant with the Lancaster Regiment, the infantry regiment for the north-west of England, including on tours of Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, 21, a hairdresser who had a young daughter, went missing after a evening out, and her corpse was found two months later in the grounds of the hotel where she had previously spotted.

Nobody had before been detained or accused in connection to her death. The arrest of Purkiss followed a fresh police investigation, which came after a article in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the newspaper approached several serving and ex-military personnel in the regiment.

The probe has been led by detectives in Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, holds legal authority in the matter.