Student stabbed his university housemate 30 times in their garden, then went home to eat pizza and play video games before calling police

Zach Coughlan, a student at the University of the West of England (UWE), has been jailed for life and must serve a minimum of 28 years for the murder of his housemate, Jamie Collins. As reported by BBC News, Collins was also a final-year UWE student when he was ambushed and killed in the garden of the home the two shared in Filton.

Collins was stabbed 30 times. His stepmother, Lisa Jane Collins, told the court in a statement that his death had “affected our family in a deep, lasting and profound way.” She added, “From now on, we will always be the couple whose boy got murdered.”

Police delivered the news to the family early in the morning after the attack, leaving them with very little information to share with Jamie’s siblings. Lisa also said Jamie’s father, Rob, was unable to work due to the stress, which caused his business to fail and left him in debt.

Coughlan’s story about being afraid of Collins didn’t hold up in court

During the trial, Coughlan claimed he was scared of Collins and said his housemate had threatened to kill him. He argued he had “no choice” but to wait for Collins to come home from university and then stab him repeatedly.

Justice Linden rejected that account, saying he did not accept Coughlan’s evidence that Collins had done or said anything to make him believe he would be violent. The judge said he was sure Coughlan had been planning to kill Collins for some time, noting that Coughlan’s guilty plea only came once his conviction was “inevitable.”

After the attack, Coughlan left Jamie to die in the alleyway behind their house. He then cycled away on Jamie’s bike, returned home, ate pizza, and played video games. He claimed he “had to disconnect” from what had happened and did not call 999 until five hours later.

Det Ch Insp Lucy Edgeworth, from the major crime investigation team, described the killing as a “pre-planned, cold-blooded execution.” She said Coughlan had tried to suggest Jamie’s political views had become more extreme and that Jamie had talked about killing him, but the motive remains “not clear.”

There was reportedly a dispute about rent, and the two held different political views. However, Edgeworth said none of those things made sense as a reason for “such a horrific crime.”

Jamie was weeks away from finishing his degree, and UWE described him as a “natural engineer.” He had two pieces of coursework left before he was set to return home to his family in Swansea, where his father had already lined up an engineering job for him.

Lisa Jane Collins also spoke about the trial, saying, “Listening to the over-performative drama of Zack’s evidence was excruciating.” She said she found the trial physically distressing and vomited twice after hearing about the brutality of the attack.