A university student has admitted to murdering his housemate in a stabbing described by prosecutors as a 'carefully planned and cold-blooded execution'.
Jamie Collins, 21, died in the garden of the home he shared with Zack Coughlan, 23, in Filton, South Gloucestershire. The robotics student at UWE Bristol was ambushed in the alleyway and stabbed repeatedly on the evening of April 8 by Coughlan, who was dressed in all-black and wearing a mask.
Attack caught on CCTV
The attack was captured on CCTV, which Coughlan later showed to police after they arrived at the scene. Bristol Crown Court heard how Coughlan left Collins dying outside at about 6pm as he cycled away on his housemate's bike.
Coughlan, also a robotics student, had initially denied the murder charge before changing his plea to guilty. This followed a ruling by Mr Justice Linden that Coughlan's partial defence of manslaughter by reason of loss of control could not be left to the jury to consider as part of their murder charge deliberations.
Details of the crime
The two students lived in the £300,000 three-bedroom house owned by Coughlan, and were both in their final year. After cycling away from the crime scene, Coughlan dumped the bike at a retail park and bought a change of clothes. His bloodstained clothes were stuffed into bags weighed down with bricks before he threw them into a pond.
He returned to the shared house on Cleve Road at about 9pm, where he put a pizza in the oven before gaming with friends. Eventually at about 2am, he called 999 claiming he had just discovered his housemate in the rear garden.
Investigation and family response
The 23-year-old was first treated as a witness before detectives found his blood on Collins's bike, and his mobile phone data matched the killer's movements. Clothes recovered from the lake were found containing blood and Coughlan's DNA. He also told a university friend he wanted to organise a memorial for Collins after the murder.
Collins's family described him as a 'caring young man' who was deeply passionate about equality and that 'his unapologetic inclusivity will be his legacy for all of us.' He was just two pieces of coursework away from graduating at the time of his death.
The family said: 'Our family has been sickened that Zack Coughlan pretended to help Jamie when in fact he is responsible for killing him. We even felt sympathy for Zack at the start, and asked police if he was okay, because of how he had initially deceived everyone.'
Coughlan will be sentenced tomorrow morning.
