Overview
- On Tuesday at Bristol Crown Court Mr Justice Linden ruled the partial loss‑of‑control manslaughter defence could not be left to the jury, and Zack Coughlan then changed his plea to guilty of murder.
- Prosecutors say Coughlan lay in wait in the garden, wearing black, and stabbed 21‑year‑old Jamie Collins about 30 times in what they described as a ‘carefully planned and cold‑blooded execution’.
- Investigators tied Coughlan to the attack with multiple lines of evidence: CCTV showing a masked attacker waiting and cycling away on the victim’s bike, mobile‑phone location data, the defendant’s blood on the bike, and clothes recovered from a pond containing forensic traces.
- Court evidence shows Coughlan discarded the bike at a retail park, bought new clothes, placed bloodstained clothing in weighted bags and dumped them in a pond, returned home to eat and play online games, and later called 999 claiming to have found the body.
- Sentencing is set for Wednesday and Collins’s family and the university community have said his death has had a profound effect; police say the motive remains unclear despite reports of a prior dispute over rent.