'Cold-blooded' student stabbed housemate 30 times to death after lying in wait in their garden

'Cold-blooded' student stabbed housemate 30 times to death after lying in wait in their garden Zack Coughlan dressed in all black and covered his face and hands when he ambushed Jamie Collins in the garden of their home in Filton, South Gloucestershire A university student who stabbed his housemate 30 times and left him dying in the garden of their home has pleaded guilty to murder. Zack Coughlan, 23, dressed in all black and put on a mask and gloves as he lay in wait for Jamie Collins, 21, to return home. Coughlan then ambushed Mr Collins in the garden of their home in Filton, South Gloucestershire, in a "carefully planned and cold-blooded execution". Mr Collins was then left to die as Coughlan cycled away on the 21-year-old's bike. Coughlan initially denied murder but has now changed his plea to guilty after a legal ruling by the trial judge today. 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 tomorrow morning. The attack was carried out shortly before 6pm on April 8 this year after Mr Collins cycled home from UWE Bristol where he was studying robotics alongside Coughlan. Adam Vaitilingam KC, prosecuting, told the jury: "This was a carefully planned and cold-blooded execution." The bike Coughlan had fled the scene on was dumped at a nearby retail park. He bought a change of clothes and threw his bloodstained garments in a pond, putting them in a carrier bag weighed down with bricks. He then went back home on Cleve Road at about 9pm, put a pizza in the oven and played some online games with his friends. Finally, at around 2am, Coughlan called 999 but claimed he had just found Mr Collins' body in the rear garden. However, 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. Coughlan also had injuries to his hands. 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 23-year-old is half Danish and grew up in Cork, Ireland, with his family. He then moved to Bristol to study robotics at 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. The statement continued: "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." The family explained Mr Collins had only two further pieces of coursework left to submit before he finished his degree. "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. The family added: "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."