Ricardo Barbaro: Family anguish after ‘merciless’ killer sentenced to 17 years jail for Ellie Price murder

A killer who stabbed his defenceless girlfriend to death in a vicious and senseless attack should have been jailed for life, his victim’s mother says.

Ricardo Barbaro, 38, will instead be eligible for parole in 17 years, as a judge sentenced him on Friday after he was found guilty of murdering Ellie Price at her South Melbourne home.

Ms Price’s mother Tracey Gangell said the sentence was not strong enough.

“A life for a life - if he can take a life away from someone, his life should be taken away as well,” she told reporters outside court.

“He’s still breathing, he still gets to see his family - I don’t get to see my daughter anymore.”

Barbaro stabbed Ms Price, 26, six times to the neck and chest in the early hours of April 29, 2020.

He left her for dead, driving away from the scene in her Mercedes Benz and dumping the vehicle at a property in Melbourne’s northwest.

Ms Price’s body was left undiscovered until May 4, when police attended her house for a welfare check as she wasn’t answering her family’s calls.

They found the mother-of-one with plunging stab wounds and a cut to her neck.

After media reported that her body had been found, Barbaro fled to NSW in a van.

He was arrested 10 days later and charged with Ms Price’s murder.

Barbaro denied the crime but was ultimately convicted by a Supreme Court jury in September 2023.

Justice Stephen Kaye on Friday described the killing as senseless and cruel as he sentenced Barbaro to up to 28 years behind bars.

“She was alone, completely defenceless and quite clearly overpowered by you,” Justice Kaye told Barbaro.

“Your murderous attack on her was cruel, vicious and entirely merciless.”

The killer had shown no remorse or insight into the murder, which Justice Kaye said showed his moral culpability was “substantial”.

Barbaro told a psychologist he had been asleep and woke to someone attacking him so he had defended himself.

Justice Kaye said it was clear the jury had rejected that theory and instead accepted he killed Ms Price in a moment of anger as she tried to defend herself by scratching him.

“You made a conscious decision to take hold of a knife for purpose of venting your rage on her,” he said.

“The number and location of the stab wounds ... were indisputable evidence that you could only have intended to kill her.”

Justice Kaye accepted Barbaro had been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, stemming from a series of murders in his family and attempts on his own life.

Barbaro also had a longstanding drug addiction and a possible acquired brain injury from his time as a boxer, the judge said.

He accepted these psychological conditions would make Barbaro’s time in custody more onerous, but said the sentence was needed to send a strong message to the community.

Barbaro will be eligible for parole after 22 years and has already served more than four years in custody.

Ms Gangell said Barbaro would still have time to enjoy his life if released on parole, while Ms Price’s son - now aged eight - had to live the rest of his life without a mother.

“I don’t think it’s enough,” she said.

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