Jury hears UWE student made pizza and played online games after allegedly killing housemate

A 23-year-old robotics student at UWE Bristol has been accused of murdering his housemate in what prosecutors described as a “cold-blooded execution”.

Zack Coughlan, from Filton, South Gloucestershire, is accused of stabbing fellow robotics student Jamie Collins, 21, 30 times in the garden of their home on April 8th.

Jamie Collins, via SWNS

Prosecutors told the jury Coughlan cycled away from the scene and did not call 999 until several hours later.

Adam Vaitilingam KC, prosecuting, told the jury that after fleeing the site on Jamie’s bike, Coughlan dumped the bike and threw his bloodstained clothes into a pond.

via SWNS

He allegedly returned to the scene three hours later. Prosecutors said he then made a pizza and played online games with friends before calling 999 at around 2am.

Vatilingam KC told the jury that Coughlan waited several hours before contacting the police, claiming he had only just discovered his friend’s body in the garden. Mobile phone data allegedly matched the movements of the attacker captured on CCTV, while Coughlan’s blood was found on Jamie’s bike. 

via SWNS

A recording of the 999 call was played to the jury, in which Coughlan is heard crying as he says “My friend’s been stabbed.”

He told the call handler Jamie was “not breathing” and his “body was hard”. The handler guided Coughlan through CPR instructions and reassured him: “You’re doing so well.”

via SWNS

Coughlan said he was following the instructions and explained how emergency services could access the body through the back of the garden. When police arrived, they told him to “sit on the floor”.

Coughlan told officers that he had “no idea” who the suspect was or where they had gone. 

The jury also heard an officer describe Jamie’s injuries, saying: “We’ve got a male, multiple stab wounds, catastrophic bleed, but I believe ambulances are on the way.”

Coughlan claims he had simply noticed the gate was open and he alerted officers to the presence of CCTV cameras. When questioned about when he had gone outside, Coughlan tolf officers: “I was just going to brush my teeth, and I put the dishwasher on…”

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via SWNS

Prosecutors told the jury Coughlan had contacted police five days before Jamie’s death. He reported seeing “hooligans with the masks in full black outfits” whom he believed were “stealing copper”. He claimed he confronted the group, who allegedly had knives, and they fled.

The prosecution argued the report was part of a plan to create a narrative before the killing. They told the jury that Coughlan later wore a similar all-black outfit, including a mask and gloves, during the alleged attack on Jamie.

Coughlan owned the house that the pair lived in, but their friends were unaware of any clear motive linked to the alleged killing, an previous disagreements over rent prices had reportedly been resolved.

At the start of the trial, the jury heard Coughlan had admitted manslaughter but denied murder.

The prosecution said Coughlan claimed he feared for his life because of things Jamie had said to him, causing him to “lose control of himself” and become “unable to stop himself from killing him”.

Jamie Collins, via SWNS

Vaitilingam KC rejected this account, telling the jury: “This was a carefully planned and cold-blooded execution. Someone who has lost control doesn’t plan ahead in the way that he did.”

He added: “Far from being out of control, Zack was very much in control of what he did, and you will see that as we show you his movements in the hours and minutes before he killed Jamie.

“His actions afterwards, disposing of his clothes, pretending he had been climbing trees so as to explain knife cuts to his hands, coming home and playing online games with his friends, looking at the CCTV app on his phone, trying to deceive the police when he called them at 2am.

“Those were further acts of someone very much in control.”

Coughlan, of Filton, South Gloucestershire, denies murder and the trial continues.

You can contact the University of Bristol Student Wellbeing Service or UWE Bristol Wellbeing Service for confidential support and guidance. You can also reach out to Bristol SU Nightline for listening support during the evening and night-time hours.

Alternatively, you can contact the Samaritans at any time by calling 116 123, or contact Shout, a 24/7 text messaging service, by texting the word “Shout” to 85258.

Featured image via SWNS