Former British Soldier Charged of Murdering Kenyan Woman Appears in Court

A man has been presented in court as deportation processes began in the legal matter of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a woman of Kenyan origin who was found dead near a British forces camp in 2012.

Robert Purkiss, 38, who is a native of the Manchester area, was presented at the Westminster court on Friday, and told the court he would challenge the deportation. It is understood that he was taken into custody on the evening of Thursday.

An arrest warrant for Purkiss was issued by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. The prosecution told the Kenyan court that the accused had been facing a sole charge, of killing, and that the Kenyan government would seek his extradition to face charges.

He was once employed as a medical attendant with the Lancaster Regiment, the military regiment for the English northwest, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, 21, a hair stylist who had a infant daughter, disappeared after a evening out, and her corpse was found 60 days later in the grounds of the hotel where she had previously spotted.

No one had previously been taken into custody or charged in relation to her death. The arrest of Purkiss followed a fresh police investigation, which came after a article in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the newspaper approached several serving and ex-military personnel in the military group.

The investigation has been headed by detectives in Kenya, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, holds legal authority in the matter.