Student who stabbed housemate 30 times admits murder
Family photoA student who stabbed his housemate more than 30 times in a masked ambush has changed his murder plea to guilty.
Zack Coughlan, 23, attacked Jamie Collins, 21, in an alleyway near the garden of their home on 8 April and then left his body outside for eight hours before calling police.
A murder trial had been under way at Bristol Crown Court because Coughlan initially denied the charge, although he did admit killing Collins. He told jurors he stabbed Collins because he feared his housemate would kill him after a dispute over rent.
However, Coughlan has now changed his plea to guilty and will be sentenced for murder on Wednesday.
During his trial, Coughlan said he stabbed his former friend because he felt he "had no choice".
His defence focused on him saying he was scared of his housemate, telling jurors he was "barely able to think" when he decided to wait for Collins to return home from university before stabbing him repeatedly.
After attacking him, Coughlan left his housemate to die outside before cycling away on the victim's bike to dispose of bloodstained evidence and clothing.
On returning home he ate pizza and played video games, claiming he "had to disconnect". He did not call 999 for another eight hours.
The court heard he later rewatched the CCTV footage of the fatal attack five times as he claimed he wanted to "make sense of what was happening and disconnect".
Det Ch Insp Lucy Edgeworth, of the major crime investigation team, said "all the evidence suggests" the killing was a "pre-planned, cold-blooded execution".
She said despite Coughlan claiming his housemate's political views had become more extreme and that he had talked about killing Coughlan, the motive for the murder was "not clear".
"We know there was a dispute about rent. We know that they held different political views. But none of those things make any sense to why somebody would carry out such a horrific crime," she said.
Edgeworth pointed out inconsistencies in Coughlan's story, including claims he had injured his hands climbing a tree after the incident, which she called "slightly odd".
She said that CCTV evidence showed Coughlan proved he had changed his shoes, "yet in his account he'd given us no indication that he'd changed his trainers, and that's just one of many things that then began to unravel with his account".
Describing him as "gentle" and "kind", Collins' family said he was "looking forward to finishing his uni journey" at at the University of the West of England (UWE) and returning home to Swansea "in just a few weeks' time".
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