Student stabbed housemate 30 times then blamed his injuries on climbing a tree, jury is told

Zack Coughlan, 23, appeared "incredibly shocked" when officers arrived at the Filton home where he had allegedly ambushed and killed Jamie Collins, 21, moments earlier. Coughlan owned the property on Cleve Road and shared it with Collins and another student. He has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but contests the murder charge, telling the court he had "lost control of himself." Bristol Crown Court heard that Collins had returned from UWE Bristol, where both men were students, and was stabbed 30 times in the garden. Coughlan then took his victim's bicycle, abandoned it at a retail park and dumped his bloodstained clothing in a pond.

Initially speaking to police as a witness, Coughlan explained his own injuries as the result of a fall while 'climbing too high onto branches that couldn't take my weight.'

Prosecutors described the killing to the court as a 'carefully planned and cold-blooded execution,' citing a rent dispute between the two men as the backdrop to the case.