A woman who was dragged off the streets and brutally raped at knifepoint in 1984 has broken her silence in a bid to catch her attacker - 40 years on.

Liz (not her her real name) was a 20-year-old law student when she was attacked as she walked to the library on the University of Warwick campus.

She was grabbed from behind and had a knife held to her throat by a man who told her he would kill her if she screamed.

Liz was then forced through a gate onto a football pitch and marched to the far end where it was pitch dark.

The man had grabbed her ponytail and the blade nicked her neck as they walked in the Canley area of Coventry.

She was then pushed to the ground, partially undressed and raped.

He told her not to move, so she lay paralysed with fear for around five minutes before she looked round and he'd gone.

Liz ran back to the path where she told a passing student what had happened and he took her to a nearby house where the occupants raised the alarm.

Her rapist has never been caught since the terrifying attack on January 9, 1984.

But after watching the BBC series 'Forensics – The Real CSI' last year which was filmed with West Midlands Police, it prompted her to contact the force again to see if advances in DNA technology might identify her attacker.

Liz staged a reconstruction on the 40th anniversary of the attack (image via SWNS)

She knew that several samples had been taken nearly 40 years before, still too early for DNA testing at that time.

And although paperwork could no longer be traced, the samples still existed in the forensic archives.

As a result, Liz agreed to stage a reconstruction on the 40th anniversary of her ordeal in the hope it may help catch the perpetrator..

Although the university campus has changed and the football pitch is no longer there, she walked the route she had taken four decades before.

She said: "I would like to feel that effort has been made to find him. I would like him to feel scared, because he frightened me for a long time.

"I want him found, I want justice.

"Whether or not they find him and he goes to prison what I would really like deep inside is for him to be walking along the road one day and for somebody to be behind him who is bigger than him and stronger than him and that has malice in his thoughts and for him to know that.

"For him to feel a little bit of the fear that I felt that day."

Detectives are now investigating DNA samples (image via SWNS)

Liz never saw her attacker's face but thought he may have been in his 20s.

He had no discernible accent and from something he said, she felt he may have done this before.

She added: "It changed me completely, it was very scary. It was a week before I could write again because my hand would just wobble.

"Some weeks I was too frightened to walk a few yards in the dark from one part of the university campus to the other.

"Even if someone unfamiliar came up behind me I would just freak out. Emotionally you are all over the place someone has violated you in an intimate and horrific way.

"They have no right to do that."

Detectives are now submitting the samples they have for DNA testing in the hope that a match can be found on today's database.

Detective Inspector Rachel Gregory, from West Midlands Police's Public Protection Unit, said: "These types of offences have really far reaching implications and devastating consequences for people and their wider families, and they are worthy of our full attention.

"A rapist is a rapist and they need to know that they will be pursued - lawfully but relentlessly - by West Midlands Police."

Anyone with information is urged to contact the force via Live Chat or by calling 101 quoting crime reference 20/246855/23.

Alternatively contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.