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A brothel boss who likened his role to the Hollywood crime franchise Charlie’s Angels says he only wanted to help a single mum get back on her feet before she was later found dead inside her apartment.
Giving evidence during her alleged killer’s Supreme Court murder trial on Thursday, adult entertainment figure Mark Gray said he met dancer Ellie Price at a Melbourne strip club in 2017 and they went on to develop a close friendship.
Mark Gray leaving the Supreme Court in Melbourne on Thursday.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Gray, who is a prosecution witness, told the court he provided her a rental reference and paid her rent, before later financing a $100,000 Mercedes-Benz E-Class as they grew closer.
“I was like her God,” Gray said. “She wanted to be like me. I just wanted to help this girl.”
Price, 26, was found dead in her apartment on May 4, 2020 – a week after police believe she was killed during the early hours of April 29.
Her then boyfriend, Ricardo Barbaro, was later arrested and charged with her murder. He has pleaded not guilty and is currently on trial.
In court on Thursday, Gray was asked about his interest in a number of brothels including A Touch More Class and Liaisons in NSW.
He said he only had a financial interest in the brothel business and rarely visited the venues he owned.
“The girls don’t know who I am. I’m like Charlie’s Angels,” he said, referring to the Hollywood action franchise about a trio of crime-fighting women working at a detective agency run by their unseen boss, Charlie.
Gray also said he had wanted to purchase the Daily Planet brothel in Melbourne, as he’d worked there as the laundry boy while at university.
Ricardo Barbaro arrives at the Supreme Court in Melbourne on Thursday.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
“I wanted to buy the Bunny Ranch [brothel] in … Nevada. Wanting to buy and buying are different things,” Gray said.
“When I was going to university I had a job at the Daily Planet where I learnt a lot about the adult industry. The largest adult venue in Australia. I got to know the brothel business. I would do the girls’ tax returns.
“I always had a fascination with that business.
Gray circa 2014.
“During COVID, that business collapsed and it went to auction. I went to the auction … I saw my dream be sold to a Korean property developer.”
The court heard that at one point Gray’s brother, lawyer John Gdanski, purchased Harem Palace – a six-star brothel in South Melbourne – with his wife.
Gray told the court he agreed to help renovate the venue with Price.
But when his sister-in-law reneged on the plan – worried about what her friends would think and any impact on her husband Gdanski’s career – it “came back” to Gray.
Gray said he saw the project as an opportunity to help teach Price business skills.
Gray told the court he only had a financial interest in the brothel business and rarely visited the venues he owned.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
It is alleged that Barbaro killed Price inside her Park Street apartment on April 29 before leaving the scene in her Mercedes-Benz.
When she was reported missing days later, police found her body on the floor of her bedroom with six stab wounds including a large cut to her neck.
Barbaro was arrested in NSW on May 13, 2020, after hiring a van and driving interstate.
The court earlier heard there had been instances of violence between the two in the lead-up to Price’s death, amid an on-again off-again relationship marked with jealousy.
Barbaro (right) has been charged with Ellie Price’s murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
Earlier, the victim’s sister Danielle Price agreed she withheld information about Gray’s involvement in brothels from police during their investigation because he’d asked her to. “Yes I was and I shouldn’t have,” she told the court.
When asked if Gray wanted to be more than friends with Price, her sister said she was aware the older man was paying Price $2000 a week to be “kept by him” and that he wanted to propose to her when she turned 28.
“I think that was his plan, but that wasn’t Ellie’s plan,” Danielle Price said.
The trial before Justice Lex Lasry continues.
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