LONDON (Reuters) -A former British soldier wanted in Kenya over the murder of a woman near a British army training camp more than a dozen years ago was refused bail on Monday pending extradition proceedings.
Robert Purkiss is accused of murdering 21-year-old Agnes Wanjiru near the army training camp in 2012, with Kenyan authorities issuing a warrant for his arrest in September.
Purkiss, who was arrested this month and has been in custody since, “vigorously denies” any involvement in Wanjiru’s death, his lawyers told Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Lawyers representing the Kenyan authorities say Purkiss’ fellow soldiers allege he confessed to the crime on the night of Wanjiru’s killing and shortly after.
Wanjiru’s murder has strained relations between Britain and Kenya, where her family and rights groups say the killers were being shielded by a defence cooperation agreement that complicates prosecution of British soldiers training in Kenya.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said in September it remained committed to helping Wanjiru’s family secure justice.
EX-SOLDIER WANTED OVER 2012 MURDER
Wanjiru’s body was found in a septic tank at the Lion’s Court Hotel in the Kenyan town of Nanyuki in June 2012. Wanjir had last been seen with a group of British soldiers on the night of March 31 and April 1, 2012.
Joel Smith, a lawyer representing Kenyan prosecutors, said Wanjiru had gone to the hotel with two friends, leaving her baby daughter to be cared for by a friend.
“At about two o’clock in the morning, Ms Wanjiru left with one of the soldiers and as she left (told her friends) she was going to hustle for her daughter,” Smith told the court. “She was never seen alive again.”
Smith added that Purkiss had shown one soldier the septic tank Wanjiru’s body was later found in and later told another soldier he killed Wanjiru after “sex that went wrong”.
Purkiss’ lawyer David Josse said that “there is no logical basis for saying that this man will run away”.
But Judge Paul Goldspring remanded Purkiss in custody until a hearing next month. Purkiss nodded towards his wife and brother in the public gallery as he was led back to the cells.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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