Ashley Gaddie, alleged killer of schoolteacher Dannielle Finlay-Jones, faces court after 12-hour standoff

The man accused of murdering Cranebrook teacher Dannielle Finlay-Jones has faced court and will fight an application for police to obtain his DNA.

Ashley Gaddie (right) has been arrested in connection with the alleged murder of Dannielle Finlay-Jones.

The man charged with the murder of a Sydney teacher has been refused bail after he was taken into custody following a dramatic 12-hour stand-off with police in the Blue Mountains.

Ashley Gaddie, 33, had been wanted by police over the alleged murder of Dannielle Finlay-Jones, who was found on Sunday with critical head injuries at a western Sydney home after the two spent the evening together.

On Wednesday afternoon he did not appear before magistrate Geoff Hiatt and Penrith Local Court, where he was formally refused bail and it was heard he would oppose an application by police to carry out a “forensic procedure” of taking a sample of his DNA.

Mr Gaddie was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday morning following the stand-off with police at a Wentworth Falls lookout. “Police negotiators attended and engaged the man in conversation before he was arrested about 12am (on Wednesday),” a statement from NSW Police said.

Ashley Gaddie pictured during stand-off in the Blue Mountains. Picture: The Daily Telegraph

Dannielle Finlay-Jones was found with ‘serious injuries’ on Sunday.

The operation began on Tuesday afternoon at 12.30pm at Fletcher’s Lookout in the Blue Mountains. A Toyota Supra reportedly linked to Mr Gaddie was towed from the area.

Police say Mr Gaddie and Ms Finlay-Jones recently met on a dating app and had spent the night at a pub before returning to a friend’s house.

Police said the owners of the home called police after finding Ms Finlay-Jones with “serious injuries” about 2.30pm on Sunday, and say neighbours reported seeing a man fleeing from the home at around 5am.

A social media profile states Ms Finlay-Jones worked for the NSW Department of Education as a student learning support officer.

Ms Finlay-Jones is among 10 women who have been killed across Australia in the past three weeks – or one every 48 hours.

It marks a shocking increase from the national average of one woman killed in Australia every week by a current or former partner, according to Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety.

According to the Red Heart Campaign, a memorial to women and children lost to violence, at least 55 women have been killed in Australia in 2022. In a social media post, the campaign described these past three weeks as “the worst we’ve seen for Australian femicides for many years”.

On the same night as Ms Finlay-Jones’s death, police were called to a home in Albion Park, NSW, for a welfare check. A 37-year-old woman was found injured in the home and later died.

On December 2, Diane Miller and her unborn child were killed three days after she was attacked by a 17-year-old boy at Waterford Shopping Centre in Karawara, Western Australia. Diane suffered head injuries and cardiac arrest after she was allegedly hit with a block of concrete.

Mr Gaddie will return to court in March.