Perry Kouroumblis, accused of the frenzied fatal stabbing of two women in their home almost five decades ago has spent his first night in an Australian prison cell.

Almost 50 years after the alleged murder of her sister, Gayle Armstrong sat in a courtroom with the man accused of the Easey Street killings.There, she glared at the alleged murderer – an unkempt 65-year-old Perry Kouroumblis,

Nearly 48 years after two women were stabbed to death in their Melbourne home, the man accused of carrying out the killings has been charged and faced court for the first time.

A man is set to be charged with the murder of two women after he was extradited from Rome to Australia almost 47 years after one of the country’s most notable cold cases.

After arriving on a late-night flight under police guard, Perry Kouroumblis is set to face court later today over the alleged double murder of two Melbourne women in 1977.

Kouroumblis was arrested at Rome’s Leonardo Da Vinci Airport in September over the alleged slaying of Suzanne Armstrong, 28, and Susan Bartlett, 27, in January 1977. Dubbed the “Easey Street murders”, the friends were found dead with more than two dozen stab wounds in their home on Easey Street in Collingwood in Melbourne’s inner north.

Dressed in a black jumper and sporting a beard, Kouroumblis sat quietly in economy class seat 35E without handcuffs, eating a meal and drinking water.

A man wanted over one of Australia's most infamous cold cases, dubbed the Easey Street murders, is on his way back to the country after being extradited from Italy. Suzanne Armstrong, 27, and Susan Bartlett, 28, were stabbed to death in their Melbourne house in 1977, in a case which has gripped the nation ever since.

Charges have been laid over one of Australia's most high-profile cold case murders, with a man extradited from Italy charged with rape and two counts of murder.

"It was an absolutely gruesome, horrific, frenzied homicide," police said after Perry Kouroumblis was arrested.