A suspect 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 found dead near a British army base in 2012.
Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is originally from Greater Manchester region, appeared before Westminster magistrates court on Friday, and informed the court he intended to contest the deportation. Reports indicate that he was detained on Thursday night.
A detention order for Purkiss was authorized by a court in Nairobi in September. The prosecution stated before the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been accused of a sole charge, of murder, and that the government of Kenya would request his deportation to face charges.
Purkiss previously worked as a medical attendant with the Lancaster Regiment, the army unit for the English northwest, including on deployments in Afghanistan.
Agnes Wanjiru, twenty-one, a beautician who had a young daughter, went missing after a night out, and her body was located after two months in the area of the accommodation where she had most recently observed.
Nobody had before been taken into custody or charged in connection to her demise. Purkiss’s arrest was the result of a fresh police investigation, which came after a exposé in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the newspaper reached out to several serving and ex-military personnel in the military group.
The investigation has been spearheaded by investigators from Kenya, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, retains jurisdiction in the matter.
