An accused double murderer has finally faced a Melbourne court, close to five decades after he allegedly stabbed two women to death in a frenzied attack.

Perry Kouroumblis, 65, appeared bleary-eyed as he sat in the dock of the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday after arriving on Australian soil on Tuesday night.

He had been extradited from Italy to face two charges of murder and one count of rape, three months after he was arrested at a Rome airport.

Kouroumblis was interviewed by Victorian detectives for several hours on Wednesday before he was formally charged over the January 1977 killings.

It’s alleged he murdered Suzanne Armstrong, 28, and Susan Bartlett, 27, at their Collingwood home in Melbourne’s inner north.

The friends were found dead with more than two dozen stab wounds at their Easey Street property. Bartlett’s 16-month-old son Gregory was left unharmed in his cot.

During Wednesday’s brief court hearing, Kouroumblis’ lawyer Bill Doogue told the magistrate there were no custody management issues.

Kouroumblis stared straight ahead as family members of the victims watched on.

He was remanded in custody and will return to court in February for a committal mention hearing.

Kouroumblis, a dual Greek-Australian national, had been living in Greece since 2016.

Police issued an INTERPOL red notice alert but he could not be arrested in Greece due to a 20-year statute of limitation on the initiation of murder charges.

He was arrested at Rome’s Leonardo Da Vinci Airport in September and an Italian judge signed off his extradition back to Australia last month.

Kouroumblis was flanked by detectives as he arrived at Melbourne Airport on Tuesday night on a Qatar Airways flight.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton previously described the murders as “an absolutely gruesome, horrific, frenzied homicide”.

He said advances in technology, investigative techniques and retracing statements had contributed to the breakthrough in Victoria’s “most serious cold case and longest cold case” ever solved.

In 2017, the force offered a $1 million reward to catch those responsible.

Armstrong and Bartlett were last seen alive on January 10, 1977. Their bodies were found three days later.

The women went to school together at Benalla in Victoria’s north and their families have said their deaths changed many lives.

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-AAP