Ex UK Soldier Charged of Killing Kenya Woman Appears in Court
An individual has appeared in court as extradition proceedings started in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a Kenyan woman who was killed near a UK military installation in the year 2012.
The accused Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is originally from Greater Manchester, appeared before the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and informed the court he would challenge the extradition. Reports indicate that he was taken into custody on the evening of Thursday.
An arrest warrant for the defendant was released by a court in Nairobi in September. The prosecution stated before the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been accused of a single count, of homicide, and that the Kenyan government would seek his extradition to face charges.
Purkiss served formerly as a army medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the army unit for the English northwest, including on tours of Afghanistan.
Agnes Wanjiru, 21 years old, a beautician who had a infant daughter, disappeared after a evening out, and her body was discovered two months later in the area of the lodging where she had previously spotted.
No one had before been detained or charged in connection to her demise. His detention followed a fresh police investigation, which was initiated after a exposé in the year 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the publication approached several current and former soldiers in the regiment.
The probe has been led by Kenyan detectives, which, under a mutual defense pact, holds legal authority in the matter.
