Convicted murderer criticizes Netflix show based on her story

Rosa Peral, the primary culprit in a highly publicized murder case involving members of Barcelona's Guàrdia Urbana police force, has spoken out against Netflix's new show 'Burning Body' ('El cuerpo en llamas' in Spanish). 

The convicted murderer called the show, based on her story and the murder of Pedro Rodríguez, her fiancée and work partner, "malicious". 

In an interview from prison with the Catalan radio station Catalunya Ràdio, Rosa Peral emphasized that the show caused a negative impact on her daughters and that "no one is thinking of the damage they are doing."

"The creators had bad intentions when making the series. No one has thought of my daughters and the fact that they are now teenagers," Rosa Peral said.

The inmate said that she did not earn anything from the series or the documentary made by Netflix called 'Rosa Peral's Tapes' ('Las Cintas de Rosa Peral') in which she explains her version of the case. 

"The only thing I got from the show is a public drowning from people," she added. 

Rosa Peral's Tapes

The Netflix documentary, which features Peral speaking from prison, has stirred plenty of controversy.

In an interview with Planta Baixa, a program on the Catalan public broadcaster TV3, Carles Vidal, the director of the documentary, explained that "with the documentary, we wanted to explain the story from a perspective that had never been told, and we wanted all of the voices to be in it, both the main characters, the prosecutor, and journalists."

Carles Vidal explained that their idea was to "create a profile of Rosa and her surroundings. I wanted to question how high-profile cases influence the real trial and the jury."

However, those who participated explained that they were not aware that Rosa Peral would take part in the documentary, and felt "fooled" by the creators.

"I would have not taken part in a documentary that tries to question a case by condemning a sexual treatment," Mayka Navarro, a journalist who covered the case in 2017, posted on social media X, formerly known as Twitter. 

Public prosecutor Félix Martín also said in an interview with Spanish radio station SER that he was fooled by the creators of the documentary: "They never told me it would just be the point of view of only one of the convicted."

Regarding the controversy about the documentary, Rosa Peral mentioned that "rather than giving my version of the story, what I wanted was to show that the case had a lot of public attention before the trial and when I got there I was already seen as guilty."

During the interview with Catalunya Ràdio, she again said she was innocent and that she "regretted" not going to the police the day that, according to her, Albert López - her lover and the other person convicted for the killing, and a third Guàrdia Urbana police officer - killed Pedro Rodríguez. 

The Catalan justice minister opened disciplinary proceedings against Peral due to the calls she made from prison, which were intended to be personal, and not be used to speak with media outlets. Sources said that she is not allowed to make such calls, while she claimed she did nothing wrong.

Peral, currently in Mas Enric prison near Tarragona, in southern Catalonia, is only allowed to communicate with direct family members.