Robotics student jailed for life for planned murder of housemate near Bristol

Zack Coughlan, a 23-year-old robotics student, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 28 years for murdering his housemate, Jamie Collins, near Bristol. The court heard that Coughlan planned the attack after tensions between the two students, including disputes over rent and political views; the judge rejected his claim that he feared Collins.

Coughlan, who had dressed in black and worn a mask, waited for Collins and stabbed him 30 times on 8 April. After the attack, he used Collins’s bicycle to dispose of evidence, returned home to eat pizza and play games, then called police about eight hours later and pretended to have just discovered the body. CCTV, blood evidence and mobile phone data helped establish his movements.