A new inquiry has been launched into how police investigated the unsolved killing of a teenage girl in Northern Ireland more than a decade ago.
Alice McLoughlin (16), from Portadown, Co Armagh, died after being struck by a shot fired while she travelled in a policeman's car in 1990.
The bullet was allegedly fired from a Royal Ulster Constabulary officer's gun.
Amid suspicions that detectives did not properly investigate the shooting Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, Mrs Nuala O'Loan, has now stepped in.
A spokesman for Mrs O'Loan confirmed that her team has started examining how the shooting was investigated.
He said: "We have begun an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Alice McLoughlin.
"There's been a lot of speculation about Alice's death and there have been allegations of police misconduct." Mrs O'Loan, who produced a damning report into how police investigated the 1998 Omagh bomb atrocity in which 29 people were murdered, has urged anyone with fresh information to contact her office. She decided to study the case following demands by a pressure group set up in Portadown called Justice For Alice.
Mrs O'Loan's spokesman added: "We will be hoping to get to the bottom of these allegations of police misconduct."