An individual has shown up before a judge as deportation processes began in the case of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a female from Kenya who was murdered near a British army base in 2012.
Purkiss, 38 years old, who is hailing from the Manchester area, was presented at the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and stated to the court he would challenge the extradition. Sources suggest that he was taken into custody on the evening of Thursday.
A detention order for the defendant was issued by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. Legal prosecutors informed the Kenyan judiciary that the accused had been accused of a single count, of homicide, and that the government of Kenya would request his deportation to face charges.
He previously worked as a medic with the Lancaster Regiment, the military regiment for the north-west of England, including on missions to Afghanistan.
Agnes Wanjiru, twenty-one, a hairdresser who had a infant daughter, disappeared after a night out, and her body was located 60 days later in the premises of the lodging where she had most recently observed.
Not a single person had earlier been taken into custody or indicted in association with her passing. Purkiss’s arrest followed a fresh police investigation, which came after a exposé in the year 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the newspaper reached out to several current and former soldiers in the regiment.
This inquiry has been spearheaded by Kenyan detectives, which, under a bilateral security treaty, maintains prosecutorial power in the matter.
