An individual has shown up before a judge as deportation processes started in the legal matter of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a woman of Kenyan origin who was killed near a UK military installation in 2012.
Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is originally from the Manchester area, appeared before the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and told the court he intended to contest the extradition. It is understood that he was arrested on Thursday night.
A warrant for arrest for the suspect was issued by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. The state attorneys informed the Kenyan judiciary that Purkiss had been accused of a single count, of murder, and that the Kenyan authorities would request his deportation to face charges.
Purkiss was once employed as a medic with the Lancaster Regiment, the infantry regiment for the English northwest, including on deployments in Afghanistan.
Agnes Wanjiru, twenty-one, a beautician who had a young daughter, disappeared after a night out, and her body was discovered two months later in the grounds of the lodging where she had most recently observed.
No one had earlier been detained or indicted in association with her passing. The arrest of Purkiss followed a recent detective probe, which was initiated after a report in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the newspaper contacted several current and former soldiers in the regiment.
The investigation has been spearheaded by detectives in Kenya, which, under a bilateral security treaty, maintains prosecutorial power in the matter.
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