A man has appeared in court as extradition proceedings began in the case of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan woman who was killed near a British army base in 2012.<\/p>\n
Robert Purkiss, 38, who is originally from Greater Manchester, appeared before Westminster magistrates court on Friday , and told the court he intended to contest the extradition to Kenya. He was arrested on Thursday night in Tidworth in Wiltshire by specialist officers from the National Crime Agency\u2019s national extradition unit.<\/p>\n
An arrest warrant for Purkiss was issued by a court in Nairobi in September.<\/p>\n
Purkiss served as a medic with the Duke of Lancaster\u2019s Regiment, the infantry regiment for the north-west of England, including on tours of Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Wanjiru, 21, a hairdresser who had a baby daughter, vanished after a night out in 2012, and her body was found two months later in the grounds of the hotel where she had last been seen.<\/p>\n
Joel Smith KC, appearing on behalf of the Home Office, told the court: \u201cSoldiers in the British Army \u2026 were in Nanyuki, Kenya on a six-week training exercise. The defendant was amongst those soldiers. \u201cThere is evidence that when the soldiers were given time off, they would go into town, drink heavily, and they would pay local women for sex.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith said some of the soldiers left their base and went drinking in the town on the night of 31 March. \u201cThey were drinking heavily. Many of them, including this defendant, ended up in the Lions Court hotel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Smith told the court: \u201cSome soldiers had booked rooms or cottages in the hotel grounds,\u201d and that Waniju and two friends had also gone out that night, ending up at the Lions Court hotel where they met soldiers. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe last time Ms Wanjiru was seen alive, she was leaving the hotel with a soldier. As she left, she told a friend in her local language that she was going to \u2018hustle for her daughter\u2019,\u201d he said, telling the court that Wanjiru \u201cwas never seen alive again\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn\u2019t return home the next day to pick up her daughter,\u201d Smith told the court. \u201cHer friends started to look for her, and on April 2 she was reported missing to the police.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith said that about two months later, on 5 June, \u201cin the grounds within the hotel, they found her body decomposing in a septic tank\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said a post-mortem examination identified a 2cm stab wound to the lower abdomen and a collapsed lung, and concluded Wanjiru \u201cmight have been alive when placed in the septic tank\u201d.<\/p>\n
Smith said inquiries had \u201cuncovered confessions\u201d made by Purkiss to fellow soldiers about the incident in Kenya, adding one spoke of seeing Purkiss \u201ccry\u201d. He said: \u201cWhen he was asked why, the defendant said \u2018I\u2019ve killed her\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The court heard that in the following days, there were \u201crumours on camp that the defendant had killed someone\u201d. In an alleged confession, Purkiss is said to have told a colleague \u201cit was sex that went wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n
In 2018, former members of the Duke of Lancaster\u2019s Regiment had shared messages over Facebook, Smith told the court, with one soldier posting a picture of himself outside the Lions Court hotel with the comment: \u201cIf you know you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
The soldier also referenced the septic tank, he said, adding Purkiss had sent a \u201csmiling face emoji\u201d in response, and when a group member asked him \u201cdo you get choked up?\u201d, he replied: \u201cCome to think of it I have had a sore throat today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Purkiss shook his head in the dock as Smith set out the allegation against him.<\/p>\n
Purkiss\u2019s lawyer David Josse said that his client \u201cvehemently denies\u201d murder\u201d.<\/p>\n
Josse made the case for bail, on grounds that Purkiss has known since 2021 that he was under suspicion for murder, and in recent weeks became aware an extradition request was likely.<\/p>\n
Rather than abscond, he instructed solicitors, secured Ministry of Defence funding to pay for some of his legal costs and had been \u201ctransparent and cooperative\u201d with the police, he told the court.<\/p>\n
He noted that if Purkiss absconded he would lose 90% of his assets. \u201cThis man is as compliant as any requested person possibly could be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Following the hearing, Wanjiru\u2019s niece, Esther Njoki, said: \u201cMy family is incredibly relieved to hear that the suspect in my aunt\u2019s case has been arrested.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have waited so many years for this moment which marks an important step towards finally obtaining justice for our beloved Agnes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family\u2019s lawyer, Leigh Day partner Tessa Gregory added: \u201cThis is a huge moment for our client and her family who have been fighting for over a decade to obtain justice for Agnes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope the UK and Kenyan authorities will now work together to ensure that the suspect can face trial in Kenya as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district judge, Briony Clarke, remanded Purkiss into custody and denied him bail on grounds that Purkiss faced \u201ca very serious allegation\u201d.<\/p>\n
He will be given the opportunity to make a further application for bail on 14 November via video link. A further case management hearing has been scheduled for 9 December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man has appeared in court as extradition proceedings began in the case of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-249773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}