Maybe you really wanted to try Parse::RecDescent... 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use Data::Dumper;
use Parse::RecDescent;
use strict;

$::RD_HINT   = 1;  # diagnose common Parse::RecDescent errors
$::RD_ERRORS = 1;  # report fatal errors
$::RD_WARN   = 1;  # report non-fatal problems

my $grammar = q?
  file    : record(s)
            { my @recs; push @recs, @{$item[1]}; \@recs }
  record  : /\|-{38}\|/ details
            { my $hr = $item[2] }
  details : date request name tel email
            {
              my $hr = {
                %{$item[1]},
                %{$item[2]},
                %{$item[3]},
                %{$item[4]},
                %{$item[5]}
              }
            }
  date    : 'Date: ' /.+/
            { {date    => $item[2]} }
  request : 'Request: ' /.+/
            { {request => $item[2]} }
  name    : 'Name: ' /.+/
            { {name    => $item[2]} }
  tel     : 'Tel: ' /.+/
            { {tel     => $item[2]} }
  email   : 'email: ' /.+/
            { {email   => $item[2]} }
?;

my $text;
{
  local $/ = undef;
  $text = <DATA>;
}

my $parser = Parse::RecDescent->new( $grammar ) or die "No parser";
my $tree   = $parser->file( $text );
$tree or die "Unable to parse records";

print Dumper( $tree );


__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]

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

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