Father of falsely accused boy speaks out

Mansfield, Conn. (WTNH) - Robbin Foster, charged with stabbing her deaf, mute and autistic son 35 times, stood shaken in court on Wednesday telling the judge "I never meant to hurt my son."

In court documents the mother, who is also deaf, told detectives she had been thinking about all the years caring for her disabled child and just wanted the pressure off her shoulders.

At first, Foster pointed the finger at a 15-year-old boy who lived nearby and claimed he stabbed her autistic son who can't hear nor speak. Foster claimed the boy also ripped a necklace off her body.

Many neighbors in the Mansfield apartment complex believed Foster’s story describing the accused 15-year-old boy as troubled.

The police “grabbed my son and immediately put handcuffs on him,” said David Waite.

The teen cooperated with police giving DNA and fingerprints, and that combined with the bloody clothes found back at the mom's apartment cleared the teen.

The father of the wrongfully accused boy told News 8 he is relieved his son's name is cleared. But he expressed anger and disappointment that his neighbors rushed to judgment.

“She wanted to be rid of her problem,” the boy’s father said. “That's the bottom line and she figured she had the perfect child right here to say he was guilty of the fact.”

It turns out the boy she blamed had helped her in the past. “He did laundry for her, cleaned dished for her,” the boy’s father explained. “This is what my boy does and she turned it around.”

In the call telling the man his son was exonerated, he says he heard the woman apologize.

Neither the disabled boy nor his mother has returned to the apartment complex. Robbin Foster is held on $500,000 bond and a protective order keeps her from having any contact with her son.

Foster now faces a mandatory five-year prison sentence. Her injured son remains hospitalized.

The State's Child advocate will investigate whether state caseworkers could have done more to prevent that stabbing.