The mother of a slain dancer denies she was instructed by a brothel owner to conceal evidence of his business interests and relationship with her daughter after “secret” text messages surfaced in her murder trial.

Ellie Price, 26, was found dead in her South Melbourne apartment in 2020 with a large wound to her neck, before her then boyfriend Ricardo Barbaro was arrested and charged with her murder.

Accused killer Ricardo Barbaro arrives at court this week Credit: AAP

Price had been friends with brothel owner Mark Gray, 60, who she’d met while working at the Men’s Gallery in central Melbourne. The court heard Gray was also paying her rent before their friendship became strained when she attempted to blackmail him for $100,000.

An initial trial this year was aborted before a second was later abandoned after Barbaro’s defence team received fresh data off Gray’s mobile phone.