Nineteen witnesses will be called to give evidence in the alleged stabbing murder of two young women in their home almost five decades ago.

Suzanne Armstrong, 28, and Susan Bartlett, 27, were found dead with more than two dozen stab wounds at their Easey Street property in the Melbourne inner-city suburb of Collingwood.

Armstrong’s 16-month-old son Gregory was left unharmed in his cot.

Perry Kouroumblis, 65, faces charges that he murdered the pair and raped Armstrong between January 10-13, 1977, in the infamous cold case dubbed the “Easey Street murders”.

Kouroumblis faced Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday via a video link.

“Yeah I can,” he responded when Magistrate Brett Sonnett asked if he could see and hear the courtroom.

During the hearing, Kouroumblis’ lawyers requested 21 witnesses be examined in an upcoming committal hearing. It will test their evidence before a magistrate decides whether the case will go to trial in a higher court.

Crown prosecutors opposed the cross-examination request for four witnesses, saying they had already provided statements of their recollections to police.

But Sonnett ruled two witnesses, former police officers who were first on the scene, “are appropriate” to be cross-examined.

Kouroumblis is yet to enter a plea to the charges.

He will return to the court on October 27 for a committal hearing over six days, when he will hear the evidence of 19 witnesses that will be tested.

Kouroumblis, a dual Greek-Australian national, had been living in Greece since 2016, but a 20-year statute of limitation on the initiation of murder charges prevented him from being arrested.

He was arrested on an INTERPOL red notice after travelling to Italy before being extradited to Australia in December to face the charges.

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-AAP