Tinder breaks silence over Dannielle Finlay-Jones, Ashley Gaddie
Dating app Tinder has claimed Dannielle Finlay-Jones and Ashley Gaddie did not meet on the app as experts push for violent criminals to be banned from accessing dating apps altogether.
Police & Courts
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Sydney teacher Dannielle Finlay-Jones met her alleged murderer Ashley Gaddie on another app — not Tinder.
A Tinder spokesman told the Daily Telegraph on Thursday that the pair did not match on their platform.
Police confirmed the pair met on another dating app.
“This is a senseless tragedy. We extend our deepest thoughts to Dannielle Finlay-Jones’ family and loved ones,” the spokesman said.
“We can confirm that the victim and the alleged offender did not match on Tinder. We are working with local law enforcement to provide any information to them that will be helpful for their investigation.
“Tinder approaches all concerning reports relative to member safety with the utmost urgency and we take appropriate actions toward bad behaviour by removing and blocking accounts across our platform.”
However, Gaddie is confirmed to have held a Tinder account.
PUSH TO BAN AVO OFFENDERS ON DATING SITES
It comes as violent criminals could be banned from accessing dating apps as a condition of their court orders, and app giants will be questioned over their repeated failures to protect women as both sides of politics unite in the wake of another woman losing her life to violence.
The Daily Telegraph today launches Swipe Them Out, a campaign to rid online dating platforms of violent and repeat offenders.
The campaign comes after Ashley Gaddie, 33, was charged with the murder of Dannielle Finlay-Jones, a woman he allegedly met on a dating app.
In the wake of the death of Ms Finlay-Jones, experts told The Daily Telegraph that not a single dating platform had all the necessary safety requirements in place.
A report from the Australian Institute of Criminology shows one third of dating app users had been subjected to in-person sexual violence by someone they met on the platform in the past five years.
Premier Dominic Perrottet on Wednesday promised to reform the system that has repeatedly seen women “seriously assaulted, murdered or attempted to be murdered” around the world.
“We will look at particularly some of those sites and ways in which we can work and improve. Tragic situations like that should never happen,” Mr Perrottet said.
The Daily Telegraph spoke to experts who called for two-pronged reform: Tightening the regulation of dating apps federally while the state works to ban criminals from abusing the platforms.
Women’s Safety Minister Natalie Ward said she would look at “innovative” ways to protect users on dating apps and work closely with federal eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant on reform, while Police Minister Paul Toole supported The Telegraph’s calls for stakeholders to meet for a roundtable on the issue.
Ms Inman Grant said the apps — including Tinder, which claimed to have overhauled its safety features — had “more work to do to ensure their platforms are safe”.
NSW Labor leader Chris Minns said politicians needed to look at “everything we can possibly do”, including legal changes and more support for people impacted by homicide.
The party’s spokeswoman on the issue, Jodie Harrison, said Labor would in principle support calls for dating app bans for criminals and would join the discussion for more reform.
NSW Police also supported “collaboration between government, the eSafety Commissioner, and companies to continue to improve the safety of people online”.
Full Stop Australia chief executive Hayley Foster said the onus of safety needed to lie with multimillion-dollar dating apps and not innocent victims.
She said people using dating apps could do everything right and still become a target, and the onus should be on the provider of the apps to build in safety mechanisms and background checks.
“It would be a market incentive because women would use safer apps,” Ms Foster said.
Cybersecurity expert Susan McLean is among the voices calling for the changes to prevent criminals from accessing their next unassuming victim.
“It needs to be a condition of the AVO or the corrections order that they are prohibited from being on a dating app,” she said. “None of the dating apps do any checks. They will claim the right to privacy but there has to come a time when the rights of an innocent person to match you far outweigh your right to not disclose your history,” Ms Mclean said.
“It gives oxygen to these people, it allows them to ply their trade and find victims.”
She said not a single dating app or website had adequate safety measures in place.
“It needs to be compulsory to put first and last name and be verified with a document,” she said. “There have been a series of women who have been seriously assaulted, murdered or attempted to be murdered by men they have met on these apps.”
Victims advocate Howard Brown called for a ban on dating apps for criminals and said it should extend to AVOs, community corrections orders and intensive corrections orders.
Mr Brown said dating apps should be forced to publicise helpful resources, including informing users they could contact their local police station about a prospective date and find out if they were the subject of a judicial order.
“I also think it would be a deterrent for those bastards who use these apps as a predatory tool,” he said.
A spokesman for Tinder said the app had worked with peak bodies to ramp up its security. which included encouraging users to verify their identity with the incentive of a blue tick.
“We’re proud of the work we’ve done in this area; starting with mutual matching, never allowing photos or links to be exchanged in our chat, and now with features like Does This Bother You? and Are You Sure? that proactively intervene to prevent harm between members,” the spokesman said.
“Match Group has also created the industry’s first law enforcement portal with a dedicated team to respond to requests for information from law enforcement and provide information to them during an investigation.”
DANGEROUS LIAISONS IN PURSUIT OF LOVE
When Angela Hardy swiped right on Tinder, there was no way for her to know that her date was a crazed serial stalker with nine apprehended violence orders against him involving four terrified women.
Behind his apparent charm, Paul Lambert, 36, had breached both parole and probation, and had even created a new identity for himself after being deported from the US for stalking and threatening his TV presenter girlfriend there.
A chilling one-third of Australian dating app users have been the victim of in-person sexual violence by someone they met online, a damning study by the Australian Institute of Crimonology found. Three-quarters have been subjected to sexual violence in some form through the technology, including online stalking, sexual harassment and being sent unsolicited sexual images.
In November 2016, three days before Lambert tried to murder Dr Hardy by stabbing her 11 times and dousing her in petrol at her Port Macquarie home, she had sought advice from police. Their computer system showed Lambert had a history of mental health issues, but the officer was blocked from telling Dr Hardy, then 28, for privacy reasons.
When she went home to pack a bag so she could stay with a cousin, Lambert burst out of her wardrobe to attack her.
He was shot dead by police after Dr Hardy escaped and ran to a neighbour’s house for help.
The obstetrician and gynaecologist has since used her voice to fight for change, but the dangerous world of online dating this week seemingly claimed its latest life after teacher Dannielle Finlay-Jones, 31, was allegedly murdered by a man she met on a dating app.
In July 2018, Indian student Maulin Rathod, 24, met Jamie Lee Dolheguy, 20, on the dating app Plenty of Fish and went to her home at Sunbury in Melbourne’s northwest.
He had no way of knowing she had a “profound personality disorder” and had been experiencing homicidal urges when he joined her in a sex game on their first date.
Instead of a fantasy, she strangled him by wrapping the cord of a sex toy around his neck. Dolheguy was sentenced to nine years in jail after being found guilty of manslaughter.
British tourist Grace Millane’s family became worried when they could not get in touch on her 22nd birthday in December 2018 while she travelled in New Zealand.
The night before, she had met up with Jesse Kempson on a Tinder date and gone back to his Auckland apartment.
Kempson, 28, had eight months earlier raped another British tourist he had met on Tinder.
He was facing eight charges of sexual and physical violence against his girlfriend.
He was jailed for life after strangling Ms Millane to death and burying her body.
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