Baby snatched from mother's arms before rape

Police are searching for three youths responsible
for a horrific gang rape on the Gold Coast.

A young mother brutally gang raped in her home on the Gold Coast last week has begged the public for help to find her attackers, believed to be just teenagers.

The 21-year-old woman trembled and cried as she recalled the nightmare attack, which occurred at her Mount Warren Park home on Wednesday in the presence of her young daughter.

The one-year-old child was ripped from her arms before three males, believed to be aged between 16 and 18, pack raped her at knife point.

"My life has been changed by this," she told a press conference today.

"I'm still in shock that this this could happen to anyone in the safety of their own home.

"I feel angry, hurt and terrified. No one can describe the contempt I feel towards these men and they should not be living among us. They should be locked up."

The woman today joined police in a public appeal for information to catch the trio, who made no attempt to disguise themselves during the attack.

She said the group had come to her front door about 1.30pm and made threats. When she ran to grab her daughter, the trio entered the house, where one of the attackers snatched the baby from her arms and took her to another room.

All three then participated in the sexual assault of the woman over about 10 minutes, Detective Senior Sergeant Michael Thiesfield said, describing the woman's ordeal as "violent and horrific."

"There were brief conversations during the course of the sexual assault," Detective Senior Sergeant Thiesfield said.

"The woman has told us a knife was produced.

"This is a serious crime and we need the public's help to find those responsible."

Investigators have taken DNA samples and hope members of the public who may have seen the group will come forward with vital information needed to track the trio.

The woman said the attack had changed her forever.

"I am a mother of a one-year-old girl and my daughter is my world and now I find myself looking at her and crying," she said.

"I'm not the same person. I don't want anyone else to go through what I've gone through and continue to go through every second of every day."