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Melbourne police say a New Zealand woman may be among the victims of a man alleged to be one of Victoria's worst sex offenders.
John Xydias, 43, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday on 181 rape and sex charges.
He is accused of drugging and raping women and videoing the attacks between 1995 and 2006.
He apparently met them through his employment in the nightclub and tavern industry or through a telephone chat agency.
"We are looking at the possibility of one person in New Zealand," Detective Acting Inspector Simon Clemence said.
He said he was hoping to send a couple of detectives to New Zealand in the next few weeks to interview the woman, but would not say where she lived.
Xydias had a number of phone contacts on his mobile phone and one of the contacts was a New Zealand number, Mr Clemence said.
"And we have already established that a number of the phone contacts are actually victims."
Police have not yet contacted the potential New Zealand victim. "It is not the sort of inquiry we want to make over the phone," he said.
There were a lot of phone contacts on Xydias' mobile phone " and you don't know where they are going to lead you".
He said he could not rule out more New Zealand women being involved.
"We would assume because he met most of these people on phone dating services, that most of them are Australian, but they could have moved. There may be more in New Zealand, we just don't know at the moment."
The list of charges Xydias faced on Friday related to seven victims aged between 21 and 30, included 57 of rape and 124 of indecent assault but more victims were coming forward.
Police believe they may have identified another 11 victims and have appealed for others to come forward.
"We want any person who feels they may have been a victim of a similar incident to come forward," Detective Acting Inspector Simon Clemence said.
Xydias was remanded him in custody until October 26 for a committal mention.
Australian media reports say the video tapes showed at least 16 women being sexually assaulted while in an apparent unconscious state.
Some of the victims in the tapes, which were labelled with the women's names, had yet to be contacted by police.
- NZPA
