Prosecutor Zubin Menon revealed in court that Bartlett was discovered near the entrance to Armstrong’s bedroom, fully clothed and with 55 stab wounds.

Armstrong, who shared the home and a long-standing friendship with Bartlett, was found in her bedroom. Her body lay on the floor, a polka-dot nightgown pulled up above her chest, with pools of blood beneath her head and shoulders. Semen stains were also noted on the carpet below, Menon added.

Armstrong had been brutally attacked, suffering 29 stab wounds, and there were allegations of sexual assault.

On the evening of January 11, neighbor Janet Powell noticed the women’s dog wandering into her yard, Menon recounted.

Powell attempted to reach the occupants by knocking on their door, but received no response. She eventually brought the dog inside her home and returned to the house to knock eight more times. Finally, she left a note on their door, informing them she had taken in their pet.

Three more people visited the house between January 11 and 13, including Ross Hammond, an acquaintance of Bartlett who had met her a week before, who knocked but there was no answer.

Menon said Hammond went around the side of the house on the evening of January 11, wrote a note for Bartlett and left.

A man who had gone on a blind date with Armstrong, Barry Woodard, visited on January 12 after calling her with no answer, and he left a note on the kitchen table.

Each of these people are expected to give evidence to a committal hearing over the deaths.

Menon said Kouroumblis, then aged 17, was interviewed by police the day after the women’s bodies were found.

He alleged officers searched a vehicle and found a knife inside the boot, and Kouroumblis gave differing accounts to police and his friends about how he got it.

The prosecutor claimed he told police he found the knife on the ground but told a friend he had stolen the knife.

He said Kouroumblis was living 230 metres away from the Easey Street home with his family.

Kouroumblis was spoken to again about the double killing in January 2017, and had agreed to give a voluntary DNA sample but then refused and left Australia for Greece in May of that year, he alleged.

Menon revealed police seized a “tissue sample” from Kouroumblis in 2018 after searching his vehicle and used this to compare against evidence from the crime scene.

DNA found on a towel, which contained blood, a lamp shade and semen found at the scene was “100 billion times more likely to observe those results if the accused was a contributor”, Menon alleged.

Kouroumblis’ defence team will question the admissibility of forensic evidence that had been preserved for almost five decades, as well as how their client’s DNA was collected.

His barrister Dermot Dann KC said Kouroumblis would plead not guilty to the murders if the case went to trial and he would apply to have the rape charge thrown out at the end of the committal hearing.

“In issue is the identity of the person or persons responsible for the tragic and brutal deaths of Ms Armstrong and Ms Bartlett,” he said.

“There is evidence of an alternate suspect being interviewed by police in 1977, when these events were fresh in the minds of homicide detectives.

“They had no doubt the alternate suspect was the person who killed Ms Armstrong and Ms Bartlett.”