An ex-girlfriend who escaped the murderous clutches of dating app killer Ashley Gaddie has branded him a psychopath who should have committed suicide months ago.
Gaddie, 35, committed suicide in his cell at Clarence Correctional Centre, near Grafton, northern New South Wales, at around 3.15pm on Saturday.
His death came 16 months after he allegedly beat Dannielle Finlay-Jones, 31, to death at a home in Cranebrook, western Sydney, on the night of December 17, 2022.
Gaddie escaped through a window and staged a 12-hour standoff at a clifftop lookout in the Blue Mountains until officers caught and arrested him.
But his former lover Rachel Piekar, 33, said Gaddie should have saved everyone the cost of running his prison and instead jumped to his death.
Rachel Piekar with Ashley Gaddie, who quickly went from being “a really nice guy” to a narcissistic psychopath who beat her, belittled her, and ultimately tried to kill her in what was a narrow escape.
Rachel Piekar said of Ashley Gaddie’s arrest atop a cliff in the Blue Mountains after an eight-hour standoff following her alleged murder of Ms Finlay-Jones, “she should have jumped”.
Rachel Piekar predicted that Gaddie would kill “the next one”, but was shocked to learn that Dannielle Finlay-Jones had been beaten to death after a night out with him in December 2022.
“I should have jumped,” he said. ‘It was a waste of space. I don’t have to pay for him to be in jail now and given food and water.
‘I see homeless people who don’t understand that: I don’t eat three meals a day.
Gaddie brutally bludgeoned Ms Finlay-Jones to death after the pair had gone on a date in a pub hours earlier and had reportedly logged on to dating app Bumble.
They then spent the night at Finlay-Jones’ friend’s house, before her housemates found her body with horrific head injuries in the bedroom the next day.
Her friends later revealed that Finlay-Jones thought she had done the right thing by setting up a meeting with Gaddie in a public place and bringing him back to her friend’s house.
But, unbeknownst to her, Gaddie had a history of violence against women and had previously tried to kill Piekar, 33.
She was one of five women who implemented stopped violence orders against him before his fatal attack on Ms Finlay-Jones.
‘I told people when I went to court: “He’ll kill the next one.” He is an absolutely violent and controlling narcissist. But at first you think he’s charming,” he said.
On Monday, Piekar said Gaddie was a “violent monster” and told WhatsNew2Day Australia his death had left her “numb”.
Piekar said she had relived horrible memories of his savage violence and threats to kill her, and his chilling promise to hide her body where no one would find it.
And he also remembered the time when she narrowly escaped being killed by him.
“He came to my dad’s house and started smashing my head against the tiles,” he revealed.
“I managed to dig in at the last minute and almost got away with it.”
The couple dated for three months on and off until the final brutal showdown in July 2021, when she was living at her father’s house near Shoalhaven, south of Sydney.
Piekar, 33, said Gaddie was “charming” at first, then belittling, violent and creepy once told her he could hide her body in the waterfall they were visiting.
Rachel Piekar admitted feeling “paralysed” upon learning her violent ex had committed suicide in jail, but also “relieved.” She said Ashley Gaddie was “a psychopath” who “should have jumped” off a cliff before police arrest her.
Gaddie burst into the house in a rage and began attacking Mrs Piekar, “smashing my head into the floor” and strangling her.
She lost her phone in the fight and, although her father was home, he was in a different part of their large house and was unaware of Gaddie’s bloodlust.
Gaddie broke a window and punched a hole in the wall while threatening to kill her while she hid behind a locked and barricaded door where he was hiding.
Piekar’s father eventually realized what was happening and called the police, who charged Gaddie with destruction of property and assault.
Mrs Piekar now lives with post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as permanent physical pain and a disability in her neck from being strangled.
“Now I can’t have a relationship anymore,” he added.
The hairdresser, a mother of two, had started dating Gaddie in 2021 after accepting a random friend request from him on Facebook, but the relationship quickly turned violent.
Gaddie had been living in a small two-bedroom apartment in Five Dock with his mother and seemed to be a good guy, but it wasn’t long before his mask fell off, she said.
“He always targeted single mothers, he took them down,” she said. ‘He would be normal and then he would just go crazy and mind control me and put me down.
“He would make you feel worthless and then he would get violent.”
Rachel Piekar, a mother of two, said Ashley Gaddie’s charming exterior disappeared fairly quickly to reveal “the monster,” who was a violent woman who hated a psychopath who tried to kill her.
She said Gaddie regularly assaulted her and pulled out her hair, but reverted to being a loving boyfriend when he returned from working in the Dubbo mines.
But soon the cycle of violence would begin again.
“He always joked about killing me, except he wasn’t joking,” she said.
“One time we went to look at Fitzroy Falls (in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales) and he said, ‘No one would find you down there, Rachel.’
In December 2022, when news emerged that Gaddie had killed Ms Finlay-Jones, Ms Piekar’s sister called her to say: “You might want to sit down…”
Piekar said he could understand the frustration of Finlay-Jones’ friends and family over Gaddie’s death before he could face a murder trial or plead not guilty.
And he added: “They would feel cheated.”
And Piekar said the death of the beloved teacher and football administrator had left her heartbroken. And she added: “I had my whole life ahead of me.”
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