A former British soldier accused of murdering a Kenyan woman whose body was found in a septic tank in 2012 has spoken publicly about the allegations, saying: “I do not believe I ever met her.”
Robert James Purkiss, 38, faces extradition to Kenya, where he is wanted for the alleged “brutal” murder of 21-year-old Agnes Wanjiru in Nanyuki, a town near a British army training camp.
An inquest in 2018 concluded Wanjiru, a hairdresser and the mother of a five-month-old baby, was murdered by British soldiers after she was found half-naked in a septic tank at the Lions Court hotel two months after she disappeared.
She was last seen leaving the hotel with a soldier.
Purkiss “vehemently denies” the murder and has received Ministry of Defence funding to help pay for his defence, Westminster magistrates court heard earlier this month.
The court was told that a colleague of Purkiss saw him crying outside the Lions Court hotel at the time of the alleged murder, and when asked why he was crying, he is alleged to have said: “I’ve killed her.”
The court also heard that in 2018, Purkiss had allegedly responded with a “smiling face emoji” after a colleague posted a picture of himself outside the Lions Court hotel with the comment “if you know, you know”, while also referencing the septic tank.
But Purkiss, who is being held on remand in a London prison after being refused bail, told the Daily Mail: “I did not kill Agnes Wanjiru. I do not believe I ever met her either. Neither would I joke about killing a woman.
“I only heard about the incident weeks later when I was on a military exercise in Canada. Only much later than that was I told a body had been found in a tank.
“I never booked the hotel room, can’t remember ever being in it. I think we were back in camp by midnight.”
He said he was a medic who had treated people on the battlefield. “Agnes was stabbed in the abdomen. She would have lost a lot of blood. If I killed her and dumped her body, there would have been blood over my clothes and hands. There was none.”
He added: “There is no basis in fact to any suggestion I murdered Agnes Wanjiru. I am sorry if that is hard for her family to hear, but it was not me.”
Purkiss will appear at the same court on Monday for a further bail application hearing.
