Zack Coughlan was heard crying while on the phone with 999 as he claimed to find his friend’s body
Bodyworn camera footage of the police arriving on the scene of the murder(Image: Avon and Somerset Police)
A student on trial for killing his housemate in a “cold-blooded execution” sobbed as he rang police to tell them he had just found his body, a 999 call reveals. Zack Coughlan is currently on trial accused of murdering Jamie Collins, from Swansea, who was found dead in his home’s garden on April 9 this year.
Coughlan denies murder but has admitted manslaughter. Yesterday (Monday, October 12), the opening day of the trial heard that Coughlan, 23, ambushed Jamie Collins, 21, in the garden of the home they shared and stabbed him 30 times.
Jamie was left dying in an alleyway before Coughlan cycled away on his victim’s bike, a court heard. Don’t miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here.
But opening the case for the prosecution, Adam Vaitilingam KC, said after trying to hide evidence and cover his tracks, Coughlan returned to the scene of the crime three hours later.
He then made a pizza and played games online before calling 999 – a total of eight hours after the killing.
He told officers he had gone outside after seeing a gate open and found Jamie’s body.
In the 999 call, which was played to the jury at the start of the trial, he is heard audibly crying as he tells call handlers: “My friend’s been stabbed.”
He tells him Jamie was “not breathing” and his “body was hard.”
The caller then talks to him about administering CPR before he gives his name and is told officers have been dispatched.
When told he is “doing so well” and asking if he was still administering CPR and counting the beats, the accused killer confirmed he was and gave instructions about how they can reach the body around the back of the garden.
When asked “who did this?” He responds: “I don’t know” and is heard crying throughout.
Officers then arrive at the scene and meet the Coughlan in the alleyway.
Coughlan is told to “sit on the floor” and he tells officers he came down as “I just saw the gate was open…”.
Police can be heard stating: “We’ve got a male, multiple stab wounds, catastrophic bleed, but I believe ambulance are on the way.”
Coughlan tells officers he had “got no idea” where the suspect was or where the suspect had gone before alerting them to the presence of cameras.
He is asked: “So, you came out into the garden roughly how long ago?” Coughlan tells them; “I was just going to brush my teeth and, I put the dishwasher on..”
“I just saw the gate was open.”
An earlier call was also made to officers five days before the murder by Coughlan reporting seeing “hooligans with the masks in full black outfits” he said he believed they were “stealing copper”.
He claimed he went out to confront them and they had some knives, but they bolted.
Prosecutors told the jury he was already pre-planning the killing and trying to create a narrative but then dressed in a similar all in black outfit with a mask and gloves to carry out the murder himself.
The jury was told the attack was carried out just before 6pm on April 8 this year when Jamie returned from the UWE Bristol.
The bike was then dumped while the killer then changed his outfit and threw bloodstained clothing in a pond, prosecutors said.
Coughlan then returned home to the shared house at about 9pm, put a pizza in the oven and did some online gaming with friends, the court heard.
Mr Vaitilingam KC, prosecuting, told the jury: “A few hours later he decided it was time to call the police and pretend that he had just found his friend’s body in the garden.”
Prosecutors told the jury Coughlan’s blood was found on the victim’s bike and mobile phone activity matched the killer’s movements on CCTV cameras.
Coughlan and Jamie were both final year students at UWE Bristol studying robotics together.
The house they lived in was owned by the defendant and the court heard there was nothing friends were aware of regarding a motive.
He will claim he “lost control of himself”
Previous disagreements around the defendant charging too much rent to Jamie had been resolved, the court heard.
At the start of the trial, the jury was told Coughlan has now admitted manslaughter but denies murder.
Prosecutors said he will claim he “lost control of himself” due to fearing for his life on the basis of what Jamie had been saying to him and had been “unable to stop himself from killing him.”
But Mr Vaitilingam said: “This was a carefully planned and cold-blooded execution. Someone who has lost control doesn’t plan ahead in the way that he did.
“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.
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