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AAP
AAP
National
Tara Cosoleto

'It never leaves you': New hunt for 1982 sex attackers

Lisa tells of her daily trauma and Mark Burnett says police won't stop until the culprits are found. (Diego Fedele/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

More than 40 years have passed since Lisa was violently abducted and sexually assaulted in bayside Melbourne, but she relives the trauma each day.

"It never leaves you," the 59-year-old woman said on Thursday.

"You might have times where you're OK but it's always there. You just feel like you're useless, like you're nothing, like you're not good enough."

She was trying to flag down a taxi in St Kilda in the early hours of December 12, 1982 when the group of four men pulled up in a Ford sedan.

They dragged the then-19-year-old into the car and drove to a deserted spot near the Brighton beach foreshore where they sexually assaulted her.

"I have flashbacks of just being in the car and them laughing at me while it was all going on," Lisa said.

After the assault, the men pushed her out of the sedan and left.

A man and two women found Lisa and helped her get to a police station to make a complaint and undergo forensic testing.

But Lisa was left feeling like the police didn't believe her.

Melbourne detectives are appealing for help as they investigate a 1982 sexual assault case. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

"They made me feel like it was my fault," she said.

After decades of no answers, one of Lisa's attackers was identified in 2012 through advancements in DNA technology.

The 51-year-old man was already in the police database for unrelated offending but his DNA matched the 1982 forensic evidence.

In 2016 he was convicted of abduction, false imprisonment, rape and aggravated rape and jailed for seven years with a minimum term of five years.

But with that man now eligible for parole, police on Thursday issued a fresh appeal to identify the other three attackers.

"If the three men involved in this incident are listening, now's the time to come forward," Detective Inspector Mark Burnett said.

"We're not going to stop. We're going to keep searching."

The known attacker has not shared the identity of his accomplices, although police believe the group did not assault others during that period, Det Insp Burnett said.

Lisa hopes someone comes forward with information.

"They know they've done it and I just can't understand what they get, how they feel ruining someone's life," she said.

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