THREE gardaí in the Bailieborough district of Co?Cavan are being investigated by the Garda Ombudsman for reportedly failing to disclose vital information about a crime they were assigned to investigate.

The garda commission­er moved to assist a family who claim that gardaí failed to properly investigate the death of their daughter and disclose vital information relating to the crime.

In September 2008, Sarah Shields (19), originally from Tallaght, Dublin, was killed in an apparent hit-and-run accident as she walked home along a road at Burrenrea, Virginia, Co Cavan.

She was found in an unconscious state on the side of a road after gardaí received an anonymous call shortly before 4am on 27 September 2008.

Her father, Ambrose Shields, who ran for Fianna Fáil in the 2004 local elections, made a detailed complaint to the Garda Om­budsman that the three investigating gardaí failed to disclose they had been socialising in the same disco as his daughter the night she died, making them potential witnesses. He also claims they failed to carry out a full investigation into her death.

"I feel the investigation wasn't done properly. The three gardaí did not disclose they were in the same nightclub that night. This questions the integrity of the investigation," he told the Sunday Tribune.

"The gardaí have said she was lying on the road and was hit by a car. That is not something Sarah would ever do. Her friends saw her outside before she disappeared and she was not in a drunken state. We believe something happened to her before she was hit by the car. We have been given no post-mortem information and the gardaí still have not returned her clothes or jewellery."

Labour Party councillor in Donegal, Frank McBrearty Jnr, has written to Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy complaining that the family have 17 key questions about the garda investigation.

Ambrose Shields added: "I'm glad that the garda commissioner seems to be taking our complaint seriously. Something happened to my daughter that night before she was found on the road whatever that was has not been investigated properly for some reason."