Convicted murderer Ricardo Barbaro’s history of domestic violence before killing girlfriend revealed

The repeated abuse Ellie Price was subjected to at the hands of boyfriend Ricardo Barbaro can now be revealed, with the thug driving a car at her just months before stabbing her to death.

Convicted murderer Ricardo Barbaro was released from jail for driving a car at girlfriend Ellie Price and witnesses who raced to her aid, just one month before he stabbed the exotic dancer to death.

Details of Barbaro’s torment towards Ms Price can now be revealed after a jury found him guilty of her gruesome slaying before he fled from the young mum’s apartment in her Mercedes Benz, on April 29, 2020.

A judge ordered the details of Barbaro’s domestic violence prison sentence be hidden from the jury to ensure the man they eventually convicted of murder got a fair trial.

But information about the pair’s “volatile relationship”, plagued by family violence, was laid bare during a pre-sentencing hearing in the Supreme Court on Thursday, including attempts by Ms Price, 26, to seek protection from authorities as she feared for her safety.

Ellie Price suffered repeated bouts of domestic violence at the hands of Ricardo Barbaro. Picture: Supplied

Barrister Damien Hannan, for the prosecution, described a horror incident where Barbaro and Ms Price had an “argument within a car” after they got “drunk on a winery tour”, on February 23, 2020.

Mr Hannan said Ms Price managed to escape from the car before her boyfriend “drove at her and other members of the public who came to support” her.

Barbaro was sentenced in the Magistrates’ Court less than a week later to one month jail following a plea of guilty.

He got out of jail in late March, just one month before he stabbed his girlfriend six times in her South Melbourne apartment and cut her throat in a “particularly heinous” injury that a pathologist found would have taken her “tens of minutes” to die from.

Ricardo Barbaro is led out of the Melbourne Supreme Court. Picture: Aaron Francis

“It’s a fairly gruesome way to die,” Mr Hannan said, while agreeing two other stab wounds could have also caused her death within a few minutes.

Justice Stephen Kaye, who now presides over the matter after Justice Lex Lasry’s retirement earlier this year, was told that Barbaro’s jail term for driving a car at Ms Price was ruled inadmissable at trial by the former sitting judge.

Defence barrister Rishi Nathwani SC noted that the case against Barbaro for driving at the group of people had resolved on the “agreed basis” that he didn’t assault Ms Price during the incident.

Meanwhile, the jury had been told that during a Valentine’s trip to Cairns two months before her death, police were twice called to an apartment shared by the pair, but no further action was taken.

Months earlier, in November 2019, the court heard Barbaro damaged Ms Price’s car by striking it while she was inside because he’d wanted to have contact with his children.

Barbaro stabbed Ellie Price six times. Picture: Facebook

Mr Nathwani described this incident as “not violence directed at her, but no doubt a form of family violence”.

The day before her murder, Ms Price had gone to the doctors with Barbaro where a GP told him to get a mental health plan before they returned to her apartment.

Early the next morning, in the minutes before her death, she sent a video of Nicki Minaj song, ‘Save Me’, to brothel tycoon Mark Gray.

“This time, won’t you save me? Baby, I can feel myself givin’ up, givin’ up,” the song lyrics state.

Mr Gray gave evidence at trial that he’d seen a bruise on Ms Price’s neck a week earlier, and that she’d told him ‘Ricardo’ had tried to choke her.

Barbaro was due to face a multi-day pre-sentence hearing, which has been delayed as he’s due to be assessed by a neuropsychologist, with the report expected to take 10 weeks to compile.

The hearing was adjourned to September 6, where Ms Price’s loved ones are expected to give statements on the impact of Barbaro’s horror crime.