Alleged killer Ashley Gaddie, 35 had failed plea offer prior to death

A man accused of the horrific, violent death of a schoolteacher had his bid for a plea offer rejected, before he committed suicide in his maximum-security jail cell.

L: Alleged killer Ashley Gaddie, R: Dannielle Finlay-Jones

A man accused of the horrific, violent murder of a schoolteacher he met on a dating app committed suicide just 24 hours after a court heard his plea offer had been rejected.

Serial domestic violence offender, Ashley Gaddie, 35, was charged over the December 2022 murder of 31-year-old Dannielle Finlay-Jones in a Cranebrook home.

The pair had met online and been on two dates before Gaddie allegedly murdered the “bubbly” teacher while staying at her friend’s home on December 17.

A friend described being woken up by what sounded like “loud, violent sex”, which police later alleged was the sounds of Gaddie murdering Ms Finlay-Jones.

An initial post-mortem result indicated the 31-year-old was strangled to death.

On Friday, in what would be Gaddie’s last court date, Legal Aid defence solicitor Diane Elston sought a two-week adjournment for “further negotiations”, citing a plea offer had been rejected by the Crown.

Accused killer Ashley Gaddie was found dead in his jail cell.

The adjournment was agreed upon and a new date of April 19 was set for Gaddie to return to court.

It is unknown what the plea offer entailed and on what grounds it was rejected.

However, 24 hours later, the alleged killer’s body was found on the floor of his cell after committing suicide at Clarence Correctional Centre in the state’s north.

Ashley Gaddie pictured on Fletchers Lookout following the alleged murder.

Sources said Gaddie had been in a common area of the jail in the afternoon, before returning to his single cell where prison officers later found him deceased.

In a statement, the operator of the maximum security prison Serco said an investigation was underway into Gaddie’s death, which would then be passed on to the coroner.

A Department of Public Prosecutions spokesman declined to comment on the plea negotiations, stating the matter would be referred to the state coroner.

“A murder waiting to happen”

A senior NSW Police officer familiar with Gaddie’s record of violence against women said he was “a murder waiting to happen”.

One year before he murdered Ms Finlay-Jones, Gaddie was sentenced over a brutal attack on a woman on the NSW South Coast.

He was still serving a two year Community Corrections Order for assaulting, stalking and choking that woman when he strangled Ms Finlay-Jones and left her for dead.

Gaddie with his son. Dated 2017. Picture:

Court documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph revealed that when Gaddie was sentenced in Milton Local Court in December 2021, Magistrate Lisa Viney said he was “low risk of reoffending”.

“I do think that given your lack of record that it is unlikely that you will be back before the courts again,” she said at the time.

But after that, Gaddie was charged with sexually touching and assaulting another woman, and intimidating police.

He was on bail for those offences when Ms Finlay-Jones was killed.