Ex UK Soldier Charged of Murdering Kenyan Woman Appears in Courtroom

A man has been presented in court as deportation processes started in the case of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a female from Kenya who was found dead near a UK military installation in 2012.

Robert Purkiss, 38 years old, who is hailing from Greater Manchester, appeared before the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and told the court he planned to fight the deportation. It is understood that he was detained on Thursday night.

A detention order for the suspect was authorized by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. Legal prosecutors informed the Kenyan judiciary that the accused had been accused of a sole charge, of murder, and that the government of Kenya would request his deportation to stand trial.

The defendant previously worked as a army medic with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the army unit for the English northwest, including on missions to Afghanistan.

The victim, 21, a hairdresser who had a baby daughter, vanished after a night on the town, and her remains was located 60 days later in the premises of the lodging where she had most recently observed.

No one had before been detained or indicted in association with her demise. The arrest of Purkiss followed a new police inquiry, which followed a exposé in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the media outlet reached out to several active and retired troops in the unit.

The investigation has been led by Kenyan detectives, which, under a mutual defense pact, retains jurisdiction in the matter.