Woman Defends Sending Adopted Son Back to Russia

INSIDE EDITION is hearing for the first time from the woman who sparked worldwide outrage after she sent her 7-year-old adopted son back to Russia alone with nothing but a note attached to him.

Torry Hansen broke her silence, speaking out in a courtroom about the case that's made her the face of failed international adoptions.

She said, "I have never mistreated or abused him or any child."

Hansen first came under international condemnation more than two years ago for the way she and her parents sent her adopted son packing from their home in Shelbyville, Tennessee.

The little boy, whom she named Justin, was sent back to his native Russia. She put him on an airplane by himself for a 10-hour flight to Moscow. A letter was pinned inside the boys pocket. In the letter, Hansen wrote, "This child is mentally unstable. He is violent and has severe psychopathic issues/behaviors. I was lied to and misled by the Russian orphanage in order to get him out of their orphanage." It then said, "For the safety of my family, friends, and myself, I no longer wish to parent this child."       

Hansen said in court, "He was very violent. I can say that he wanted to kill me. I can say that he tried to kill my sister and that he started a fire. And after he started the fire, that's when my parents decided, because he started it in their home, to send him back."

Hansen said it was her parents who made the decision to put him on a plane back to Russia, causing an international incident.

Larry Crain represents the Seattle-based adoption agency that Torry Hansen used to adopt the little boy. Crain told INSIDE EDITION, "She signed a contract. She knew what she was signing, and she simply breached it."

The little boy now lives in a group home in a Moscow suburb.

Crain said, "I just hope he is making strides to become stable."

No criminal charges have been brought against Hansen.