Bristol: Student Called 999 About Eight Hours After Killing Housemate, Murder Trial Hears
- A university student who admits killing his housemate did not call 999 until approximately eight hours after the attack, and played online games with friends at home in the meantime, a jury at Bristo…
- Zack Coughlan, 23, has admitted the manslaughter of Jamie Collins, 21, but denies murder.
- The two were final-year robotics students at the University of the West of England and lived in a house that Coughlan owned, the jury was told.
A university student who admits killing his housemate did not call 999 until approximately eight hours after the attack, and played online games with friends at home in the meantime, a jury at Bristol Crown Court has heard.
Zack Coughlan, 23, has admitted the manslaughter of Jamie Collins, 21, but denies murder. His trial opened on October 12. The prosecution calls the killing in Filton, near Bristol, on April 8, 2026, “a carefully planned and cold-blooded execution.”
Friends who shared a house
The two were final-year robotics students at the University of the West of England and lived in a house that Coughlan owned, the jury was told. Collins was originally from Swansea.
Prosecutor Adam Vaitilingam KC said there had been disagreements over rent, including whether Coughlan was charging too much, but these had been resolved. Friends knew of nothing that seemed to be a significant problem between them. “They hung out together both in person and online, they did gaming together,” he said.
Eight hours between the attack and the call
The prosecution then took the jury through its timeline, as reported by the BBC, the Press Association via WalesOnline and Bristol Live.
| When (2026) | What the prosecution says happened |
|---|---|
| Five days before the attack | Coughlan calls police to report masked men in black outfits who he believed were stealing copper, Bristol Live reported. The prosecution says he was already planning the killing and trying to create a narrative. |
| April 8, shortly before 6 p.m. | Collins, returning from university, is ambushed in the garden by an attacker dressed in black with a mask and gloves and stabbed 30 times. The attacker leaves on Collins’ bike. |
| Following hours | The bike is dumped at a nearby retail park, a change of clothes is bought and bloodstained clothing is thrown into a pond. |
| About 9 p.m. | Coughlan returns home, puts a pizza in the oven and plays online games with friends. |
| About 2 a.m. (April 9) | Coughlan calls 999 and says his friend has been stabbed. |
What jurors heard on the 999 call
By then, the prosecutor said, Coughlan had “decided it was time to call the police and pretend that he had just found his friend’s body in the garden.”
The recording was played to the jury at the start of the trial, Bristol Live reported. On it, Coughlan can be heard crying as he tells the call handler, “My friend’s been stabbed,” and says Collins is not breathing. He is told to give CPR and says he is doing so. Asked who had done it, he replies, “I don’t know.”
Armed officers arrived soon afterwards. Coughlan told them he had been out at the park, had just come home and had gone outside after noticing the back gate was open.
From witness to suspect
At first, officers treated him as a witness. He showed them footage from the CCTV cameras at the house, which had recorded the attack, the court heard.
The prosecution says Coughlan’s blood was later found on Collins’ bike, and analysis of his phone matched the attacker’s movements caught on CCTV afterwards. He had injuries to his hands, which he told people came from falling while climbing trees.
“And so Zack went from being a witness to a suspect in the murder,” Vaitilingam said.
Police announcements put dates on that shift. Avon and Somerset Police said on April 12 that a man in his 20s had been arrested on suspicion of murder, three days after emergency services were called to the garden. In the same appeal, detectives asked for CCTV or dashcam footage from Cleve Road and nearby streets covering 3 p.m. on April 8 to 3 a.m. on April 9.
Two days later, the force confirmed that the Crown Prosecution Service had authorised a murder charge against Coughlan. Bristol magistrates remanded him in custody on April 14, pending a further hearing at Bristol Crown Court on June 16.
What the jury has to decide
Because Coughlan has admitted manslaughter, the jury has to decide whether he is guilty of murder.
Vaitilingam told jurors that Coughlan was expected to argue he had lost self-control because things Collins had said in the preceding days and weeks made him fear for his life.
The partial defence of loss of control is set out in section 54 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. If it succeeds, a killing that would otherwise be murder becomes manslaughter. Three conditions must all be met:
- the killing happened because the person lost self-control, although the loss does not have to be sudden;
- something specific set it off, which the law calls a “qualifying trigger.” Under section 55, that can include fear of serious violence from the victim;
- someone of the same sex and age, with a normal degree of tolerance and self-restraint, might have reacted in the same or a similar way in the same circumstances.
The defence cannot be used by someone who acted out of “a considered desire for revenge.” The judge decides whether there is enough evidence for the jury to consider it. If there is, the prosecution has to disprove it beyond reasonable doubt.
The prosecution’s answer is that the defence “doesn’t even get past first base.” Vaitilingam pointed to the planning, the disguise and the 20-minute wait for Collins to appear.
He said Coughlan’s behaviour afterwards, including playing online games with friends and looking at the CCTV app on his phone, showed someone “very much in control.” The trial continues.
