Student jailed for life for murdering university housemate

Zack Coughlan, 23, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 28 years for murdering his university housemate Jamie Collins in an ambush near Bristol.

Coughlan, a final-year student at the University of the West of England, stabbed 21-year-old Collins 30 times in the garden of their shared home on 8 April. He left Collins dying in an alleyway and cycled away to dispose of bloodstained evidence, the BBC reports. He called police eight hours later. [1]

Coughlan had denied murder, and his trial at Bristol Crown Court was under way when he pleaded guilty on Tuesday. Sentencing him, Mr Justice Linden said Coughlan had been planning to kill Collins for some time and that his guilty plea came when conviction was inevitable. [1]

Collins was also a final-year student at the university. The judge described him as an idealist who took an interest in problems facing society. [1]