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The attack on Julie Perigo was described as “frenzied” at the time.

She was butchered mercilessly in her own home, a one-bedroom council flat on Kidderminster Road, Sunderland .

It was May 23, 1986. Julie was 51.

Somebody had inflicted an unthinkable level of violence on her body.

We still don’t know why it happened - and we still don’t know who did it.

The background

Julie, a mother-of-two, lived in the Downhill area of Sunderland.

She was known to have worked as a prostitute for several years and formerly as a stripper.

Media reports from the time noted that she had been married twice but was divorced at the time of her death.

On the day she died, Julie told a friend she would be meeting a client at lunchtime.

The murder

Julie’s body wasn’t discovered until a week after she died.

Her sister, who was living in Sussex, raised concerns that she wasn’t picking up her phone.

Police forced entry into the one-bedroom flat and were met by a scene of human carnage.

She had been stabbed countless times and reportedly sustained other injuries that are too graphic to recount.

The official cause of death was recorded as bleeding due to multiple stab wounds and shock.

Claire Phillipson, who is currently director of domestic violence charity Wearside Women in Need, remembers the murder well.

By 1986 she was already working in the field of violence against women and was engaging with individuals who lead lifestyles like Julie’s.

Recalling the reports at the time, she said: “I was shocked and scared.

“I heard about the brutally violent things that had apparently happened to her and weren’t reported in the press.

“We had a dangerous person on the loose in Sunderland and no one knew they were.

“I remember worrying about our clients because we felt that some of them could be at risk.

“Somewhere out there was a very violent person who had a deep hatred of women.

“That person could have been young at the time.

“They could still be out there.”

The investigation

Julie kept diaries - lots of them, filled with the names of men who paid her for sex.

If it was a client who killed her, the police had a ready-made register of potential suspects in their hands.

But that created its own problems.

Julie advertised herself in classified magazines and had clients from across the UK.

The list would lead police into a much more far-ranging investigation than they might have originally expected.

Using the diaries as a starting point, officers interviewed as many as 6000 people in relation to the murder.

Three males were arrested but released without charge.

A well-built man in his sixties who visited Julie at around the time of her death has never been traced.

Neither has a man, who was in his 20s at the time, from Wallsend, North Tyneside , who had tried to contact her two days earlier.

It was a nationwide inquiry but the trail ran cold.

There were hopes of a breakthrough in 2002 thanks to advances in DNA testing.

A 46-year-old man was voluntarily screened, although he was never arrested or charged.

It is also understood that the man was simultaneously being tested in connection with the ‘Wearside Jack’ hoax, in which taunting letters were sent to the police purporting to be from the Yorkshire Ripper.

Nothing came of this intervention and to this day whoever killed Julie Perigo has not been caught.

We can’t be sure that Julie was murdered by a male client but that was the police’s working theory at a time.

If so, Claire Philipson says the motivation is pure and simple: “It’s hatred for women, utter contempt.

“Most men who buy women for sex just hate women.

“I think that’s what happened to Julie - a victim of pure hatred, pure loathing for women.”

Where are we now?

How we treat women who lead “marginal” lifestyles has changed and there is a far better support structure in place now for women at risk of violence.

At the time, Claire said she and her colleagues faced an uphill battle to make sure violence against women was at the top of the police’s list of priorities.

Claire said: “It would have been investigated differently now, without a shadow of a doubt. The police have changed.

“We still have problems - you still see headlines which say ‘prostitute murdered’ rather than ‘woman murdered’.

“But if Julie had been murdered today I think it would have been handled differently and received more attention.”

The treatment of women in the sex trade has received mainstream attention in recent years.

The 2015 Modern Slavery Act made a huge step forward in cracking down on gangs who traffic women to exploit them.

From Claire’s perspective, those women are invariably at risk of violence, up to and including the sort of thing that Julie Perigo was left vulnerable to.

Claire said: “We see people who are brought in to the UK thinking that they are going to be working in a hotel or something but they are forced into prostitution.

“They are completely hidden. No one knows where they are apart from those who buy and sell them.

“There are women who come through our service and the stories they tell are horrific.

“It’s not ‘the oldest profession’; it’s the oldest form of oppression.

“Prostitutes are treated with contempt and seen as objects you can do anything with.

“But you see this dramatisation of it on TV when its called ‘sex work’ and its shown as glamorous and fun and profitable.

“We know that’s a lie.”

As a society, we’ve got a lot better at extending the duty of care to those who lead lives on the fringes of what is generally deemed acceptable.

The terrible case of Julie Perigo shows why that’s important.

Supt Christina Barrett said: “Unsolved murders are never closed and are regularly reviewed by our team of specialist detectives.

“If new information is received or there are new forensic developments these are acted upon at the earliest opportunity.

“If anyone does have information that could help an historic investigation then they can call police on 101 or report it anonymously through Crimestoppers by calling 0800 555 111.”