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.

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’s national extradition unit.

An arrest warrant for Purkiss was issued by a court in Nairobi in September.

Purkiss served as a medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the infantry regiment for the north-west of England, including on tours of Afghanistan.

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.

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 amongst 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.”

Smith said some of the soldiers left their base and went drinking in the town on the night of 31 March. “They were drinking heavily. Many of them, including this defendant, ended up in the Lions Court hotel,” he said.

Smith told the court: “Some soldiers had booked rooms or cottages in the hotel grounds,” and that Waniju and two friends had also gone out that night, ending up at the hotel where they met soldiers.

“The 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 ‘hustle for her daughter’,” he said, telling the court that Wanjiru “was never seen alive again”.

“She didn’t return home the next day to pick up her daughter,” Smith told the court. “Her friends started to look for her, and on April 2 she was reported missing to the police.”

Smith said that about two months later, on 5 June, “in the grounds within the hotel, they found her body decomposing in a septic tank”.

He said a postmortem identified a 2cm stab wound to the lower abdomen and a collapsed lung, and concluded Wanjiru “might have been alive when placed in the septic tank”.

Smith said inquiries had “uncovered confessions” made by Purkiss to fellow soldiers about the incident in Kenya, adding one spoke of seeing Purkiss “cry”. He said: “When he was asked why, the defendant said ‘I’ve killed her’.”

The court heard that in the following days, there were “rumours on camp that the defendant had killed someone”. In an alleged confession, Purkiss is said to have told a colleague “it was sex that went wrong”.

In 2018, former members of the Duke of Lancaster’s 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: “If you know you know.”

The soldier also referenced the septic tank, he said, adding Purkiss had sent a “smiling face emoji” in response, and when a group member asked him “do you get choked up?”, he replied: “Come to think of it I have had a sore throat today.”

Purkiss shook his head in the dock as Smith set out the allegation against him.

Purkiss’s lawyer, David Josse, said his client “vehemently denies” murder.

Josse made the case for bail, on grounds that Purkiss had known since 2021 that he was under suspicion for murder, and in recent weeks became aware an extradition request was likely.

Rather than abscond, he instructed solicitors, secured Ministry of Defence funding to pay for some of his legal costs and had been “transparent and cooperative” with the police, he told the court.

He noted that if Purkiss absconded he would lose 90% of his assets. “This man is as compliant as any requested person possibly could be,” he said.

Following the hearing, Wanjiru’s niece, Esther Njoki, said: “My family is incredibly relieved to hear that the suspect in my aunt’s case has been arrested.

“We have waited so many years for this moment which marks an important step towards finally obtaining justice for our beloved Agnes.”

The family’s lawyer, Tessa Gregory of the law firm Leigh Day, added: “This is a huge moment for our client and her family who have been fighting for over a decade to obtain justice for Agnes.

“We hope the UK and Kenyan authorities will now work together to ensure that the suspect can face trial in Kenya as quickly as possible.”

Judge Clarke remanded Purkiss into custody and denied him bail on grounds that he faced “a very serious allegation”.

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.