Ian Bailey believes Netflix’s Sophie Toscan du Plantier documentary will be “a piece of demonisation”

Bailey has not seen the Netflix documentary but said he only took part in it in a "limited" capacity.

Ian Bailey has said he suspects the upcoming Netflix documentary series about the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier will be "a piece of propaganda" and "a piece of demonisation". Sophie: A Murder in West Cork will debut on Netflix on Wednesday, 30 June. It comes from the Oscar-winning producer Simon Chinn (Man On Wire, Searching For Sugarman) and was filmed in West Cork and other locations around Ireland and France. Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan has also made a documentary series about the case titled Murder at the Cottage: The Search for Justice for Sophie, which is coming soon to Sky Crime and NOW. Suspect in the case Bailey has been convicted of the murder by the French authorities but was not present for the trial after winning a legal battle against extradition. He has maintained his innocence in regard to the murder. Bailey was asked on The Neil Prendeville Show if he had seen either of the documentaries. He responded: "Well no. The Sky documentary is being done by Jim Sheridan. I've contributed to it. I don't know how it's going to come out. "The Netflix documentary I think is actually more a piece of propaganda than objective documentary from what I understand." Bailey will appear in both documentaries but only gave Netflix "limited access". He explained: "I cooperated fully with the Jim Sheridan project. I gave the Netflix team... some limited access to me in the open air as it were - just being myself. But I didn't do any interviews with them." Bailey said he has no idea how he will be portrayed in either of the shows. He stated: "I'm hoping the Jim Sheridan project will be objective and reasonable. I'm suspecting the Netflix project will be a piece of demonisation, and as I said propaganda." As for the reasons for this, he said: "The French family are actually involved in the production at quite a high level and clearly you know they believe I had something to do with the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier." On top of the two documentaries, recently, it was announced that the producers of HBO's Chernobyl are working with the producers of the hit podcast series West Cork about the murder for an adaptation of their story.