Father of accused Tinder killer Ashley Gaddie breaks his silence 

The estranged father of alleged ‘dating app’ murderer Ashley Gaddie has exposed the bitter rift in their shattered family as he breaks his silence over his son’s murder charge. 

Gaddie, 33, is accused of brutally killing teacher Dannielle Finlay-Jones, 31, at her friend’s Cranebrook home in Sydney’s west after meeting through a dating app. 

Police allege Gaddie fled the scene through the bedroom window after inflicting severe fatal head injuries sometime between 5am and 2.30pm on Sunday, when her friends found her body.

Now Ian Gaddie, the alleged killer’s horrified father, has revealed how his son cut off all contact with him five years ago.

‘He doesn’t want to know me,’ he told Daily Mail Australia outside his modest home in St Marys in Sydney’s west which he once shared with his then-teenage son.

Ian Gaddie is a motorbike enthusiast who wears a bright Harley Davidson-branded bomber jacket and whose LinkedIn profile features him on a huge touring bike (pictured)

The motorbike enthusiast – who wears a bright Harley Davidson-branded bomber jacket and whose LinkedIn profile features him on a huge touring bike – said he hadn’t spoken to his son in five years. 

He said the allegations against his son had shocked him.

‘It’s very upsetting,’ Mr Gaddie said of the claims. ‘It is going to take a while to get over.’ 

Mr Gaddie said it was unlikely he would be supporting his son in court as their relationship broke down some time ago.

The machinery technician said he didn’t think his son would want to see him now.

Meanwhile, at the murder scene in Cranebrook, forensic cleaners could be seen scrubbing the home which has lain empty since the horrific crime was discovered. 

Dannielle Finlay-Jones (pictured) worked as a support officer at the NSW Department of Education and was a beloved soccer administrator at her local Ramsgate RSL Football Club

Ashley Gaddie (pictured) used several apps to date including Tinder

Ms Finlay-Jones’s friend, who only recently moved there, is staying at a temporary address while investigations continue and all trace of the tragic death are removed. 

The specialist scene of crime cleaners piled up linen alongside a broom and other equipment in the hallway of the bungalow home in the quiet, family-friendly street.

The street is part of a community crime prevention scheme and the home where Ms Finlay-Jones was killed was a designated ‘Safety House’.

A yellow NSW Police sticker on the home’s street number showed it was considered a safe place for children when they feared they were in danger. 

As the cleaners made their way in and out of the house, neatly wrapped Christmas presents could be seen piled up on the kitchen table.

Bouquets of flowers and cards have been laid on the front doorstep as locals pay the respect to Ms Finlay-Jones and send condolences to her grieving friends.

At the murder scene in Cranebrook, forensic cleaners (pictured) could be seen scrubbing the home which has lain empty since the horrific crime was discovered

Ms Finlay-Jones’s friend, who only recently moved into the home (pictured), is staying at a temporary address while investigations continue and all trace of the tragic death are removed

One card read: ‘Thinking of you all during this sad time.’

Sources close to the Gaddie family told Daily Mail Australia the alleged killer grew up in nearby Bidwill – a working class suburb in western Sydney – with his mother, father and two sisters.

When his parents separated in the early 2000s, the two daughters stayed in the family home while Gaddie, then a teenager, moved out with his father to St Marys.

‘They were just a normal family,’ the source said. ‘The parents went to work; the kids went to school.’ 

Property records show that Mrs Gaddie sold the Bidwill family home in 2018, having moved to a unit in Five Dock, in the city’s inner-west, three years earlier. 

Gaddie had been living with his mother at the small two-bedroom apartment at the time of his arrest after leaving a Ryde share house in October. 

Accused killer Ashley Gaddie is seen posing with Santa Claus while his baby boy was dressed up as Father Christmas

One of Gaddie’s ex-lovers Karla Tauro, 28, revealed how she would spend time with the accused killer at his mother’s home  just days before Sunday’s alleged murder.

Ms Finlay-Jones died after allegedly hooking up with Gaddie via an app, and introduced him to her friends on Saturday night on a date at a nearby pub.

The pair allegedly returned with the friends to the home in Cranebrook where the couple then moved into the bedroom.

Worried friends checked the bedroom at 2.30pm when they hadn’t heard anything from the couple and found Ms Finlay-Jones’s lifeless body.

Dannielle Finlay-Jones died after allegedly hooking up with Gaddie via a dating app, and introduced him to her friends on Saturday night on a date at a nearby microbrewery

Pictured: Specially trained police negotiators engaged with Gaddie who was perched at the top of a precarious clifftop at Fletcher’s Lookout (pictured taking a selfie at the same spot)

Police launched a massive manhunt for Gaddie in the wake of the killing, issuing a warrant for his arrest for murder on Tuesday morning and a public appeal for help.

Less than three hours later, he was found perched on a precarious clifftop at Fletcher’s Lookout overlooking Wentworth Falls in Sydney’s Blue Mountains.

A tense 12-hour stand-off ended juftindst after midnight on Wednesday when special police response teams snatched him to safety and arrested him.

Gaddie was questioned overnight at Katoomba Police station before he was charged with murder and remanded in custody at Penrith Local Court until his next hearing on March 3.