Ex-soldier in extradition case over woman killed in Kenya

A man appeared in court yesterday for extradition proceedings in the case of a Kenyan woman killed near a British army base in 2012.

- Hannah Al-Othman Rachel Hall

Robert Purkiss, 38, who is from Manchester, told Westminster magistrates court that he intended to contest extradition.

He was arrested on Thursday in Tidworth in Wiltshire by specialist officers from the National Crime Agency. An arrest warrant for Purkiss was issued by a court in Nairobi in September over the death of Agnes Wanjiru.

Purkiss served as a medic with the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, including on tours of Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, a 21-year-old hairdresser with a baby daughter, vanished after a night out in 2012.

Her body was found two months later in the grounds of the hotel where she was last seen.

Joel Smith KC, appearing on behalf of the Home Office, told the court: "Soldiers in the British army ... were in Nanyuki, Kenya, on a six-week training exercise. The defendant was among those soldiers. There 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."