A suspect has been presented in court as extradition proceedings started in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a woman of Kenyan origin who was killed near a UK military installation in the year 2012.
Purkiss, 38, who is a native of the Manchester area, appeared before Westminster magistrates court on Friday, and told the court he intended to contest the extradition. It is understood that he was taken into custody on Thursday night.
A detention order for Purkiss was authorized by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in the month of September. The state attorneys told the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been accused of a single count, of homicide, and that the government of Kenya would request his deportation to stand trial.
Purkiss previously worked as a medical attendant with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the army unit for the north-west of England, including on tours of Afghanistan.
Wanjiru, 21, a hairdresser who had a young daughter, went missing after a evening out, and her body was located 60 days later in the premises of the lodging where she had most recently observed.
No one had previously been arrested or indicted in association with her demise. Purkiss’s arrest was the result of a recent detective probe, which was initiated after a article in the year 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the media outlet contacted several active and retired troops in the unit.
The probe has been spearheaded by Kenyan detectives, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, maintains prosecutorial power in the case.
