Well, you could use split a lot and do this... 
{
    my @records;
    local $/; # allow to read in whole file
    for(split /\s*\|--------------------------------------\|\s*/, <DAT
+A>) {
        my %rec;
        next unless /\S/; #check for data
        for(split "\n", $_) { # split up the datum in a record
            my($key,$val) = split ':', $_, 2; # split the datum, the ,
+2 limits split to 
                    #only splitting the string into at most 2 pieces, 
+saving further :
            $rec{$key} = $val; #store in hash
        }
        push @records, \%rec; # store recs in array
    }
    for(@records) { #iterate and print, you get the idea
        print "$_->{Date}\n";
    }
}

__DATA__
|--------------------------------------|

Date: today
Request: text here text here text here
Name: Joe Bloggs
Tel: 0123 45677
email: joebloggs@bloggs.com

|--------------------------------------|

Date: Today
Request: text here text here text here
Name: John Smith
Tel: 0123 45677
email: johnsmith@smith.com

|--------------------------------------|

[download]
replace DATA with a proper filehandle to your file...

If it is a very big file, you might want something that reads line by lines and maintains state, but this is one way to do it...

                - Ant
                - Some of my best work - Fish Dinner

In reply to Re: processing text from flat file by suaveant
in thread processing text from flat file by Anonymous Monk

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