Student changes plea and admits murdering housemate in ‘cold-blooded execution’

A university student who lay in wait for his housemate to return home before stabbing him 30 times in a “carefully planned and cold-blooded execution” has pleaded guilty to murder.

Zack Coughlan, 23, dressed all in black and wore a mask and gloves to ambush Jamie Collins, 21, in the garden of their home in Filton, South Gloucestershire.

Bristol Crown Court heard Mr Collins was stabbed repeatedly and Coughlan left him dying in the alleyway as he cycled away on his housemate’s bike.

Coughlan had denied murder but changed his plea to guilty after a legal ruling by the trial judge on Tuesday.

Mr Justice Linden ruled 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 deliberations on the murder charge.

He told the jury: “You will have just heard that the defendant has changed his plea to the indictment to guilty.

“That means that he now admits the charge of murder.”

He added: “I would like, on behalf of us all, to thank you for the service that you have given in this case.”

Coughlan, of Cleve Road, Filton, will be sentenced on Wednesday morning.

Mr Collins was attacked shortly before 6pm on April 8 this year after cycling home from the UWE Bristol where he was studying robotics alongside his killer.

Adam Vaitilingam KC, prosecuting, told the jury: “This was a carefully planned and cold-blooded execution.”

Coughlan dumped the bike at a nearby retail park, bought a change of clothes and threw his bloodstained clothing in a pond, in carrier bags weighed down with bricks.

He returned to the house they shared in Cleve Road at about 9pm, put a pizza in the oven and did some online gaming with friends.

At around 2am, Coughlan dialled 999 claiming he had just found Mr Collins’ body in the rear garden.

The attack was caught on CCTV installed at the house they shared, which Coughlan showed the attending police officers who initially treated him as a witness.

The defendant’s blood had been found on Mr Collins’ bike, and analysis of his mobile phone matched the killer’s movements afterwards captured on CCTV.

He also had injuries to his hands, and he told people who saw him bleeding that he had been climbing trees and had fallen and hurt himself.

After the murder, Coughlan told a university friend he wanted to hold a memorial for his housemate.

Coughlan and Mr Collins, originally from Swansea, were both final year students and lived together in a £300,000 three-bedroomed house owned by the defendant.

The defendant is half Danish and grew up with his family in Cork, Ireland, before moving to Bristol to study robotics at the age of 19.

In a statement released after Mr Collins’ death, his family said: “Our Jamie was a bright, kind, gentle and unassuming young man with his whole life ahead of him.

“He was looking forward to finishing his uni journey and planning to come home to us in Swansea in just a few weeks’ time.

“We know he was heading for a hugely successful future following his engineering and robotics degree.”

In a statement issued following the guilty plea, Mr Collins’ family said his death had “affected our family in a deep, profound, and lasting way”.

“As a family we have had to explain repeatedly to people what has happened,” they said.

“Every time we do so it reinforces the pain of him having been killed so suddenly, and in such a senseless and brutal way.

“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.”

They said Mr Collins had almost completed his degree and had only two further pieces of coursework to finish when he died.

“Jamie was a sensitive and caring young man. His passion for equality stood out to everyone who knew him. His unapologetic inclusivity will be his legacy for all of us,” they said.

“Jamie was incredibly bright and he had a promising future ahead of him. He had only two pieces of coursework to complete for his robotics degree before he was going to come home in a matter of weeks.

“Jamie had accumulated enough results that he was awarded a 2:1 degree.

“We were pleased to see his friends collect their degrees, but it was another emotional and painful reminder of what we have lost.

“Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to everyone who has supported us over the past six months.

“To see so many of Jamie’s friends in the public gallery at court was truly overwhelming.

“We will never forget people’s kindness.”

Detective Chief Inspector Lucy Edgeworth, who led the investigation, said: “Coughlan made out he was scared of Jamie and said he lost control out of fear for his life.

“Not a single shred of evidence to support that claim was found during our investigation and it was not an account he shared with police during three interviews after he was arrested.

“In court Coughlan admitted to lying in the hours and days after the murder.

“Yet he still tried to turn the tables and blame Jamie for the vicious murder he committed, when Jamie is tragically no longer able to defend his name.

“Coughlan lied continuously to protect himself – whether it to be to police or his friends about what happened.”