A woman who posted a video online of her father, a Texas judge who handles child abuse cases, whipping her seven years ago said she did it because he needs help. This as the Rockport police chief said her father will not face charges.

• Video On YouTube (Warning: Graphic Content)
• Read Judge William Adams' Response

Hillary Adams said that until last week only a couple of close friends knew about what happened. Now the whipping is on display to the world on YouTube thanks to a secret video she made.

Her father, Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams, is the subject of a police investigation.

Rockport Police Chief Tim Jayroe told KPRC Local 2 that Adams would not face charges because the statute of limitations on the case had expired. The chief added that if the statute of limitations had not run out, Adams would have likely faced a charge of injury to a child and other assault offenses.

The clip was shot in 2004 and shows Adams violently whipping his teenage daughter in the legs more than a dozen times and profanely berating the teenager for more than seven minutes.

In the video, Adams said, "Bend over that bed. Bend over that bed." William Adams is then seen repeatedly spanking his daughter with a leather belt.

Hillary Adams, who was 16 at the time, said she secretly videotaped the whipping in her bedroom because she "knew something was about to happen." She said her parents were angry at her for using her computer to download pirated content over the Internet.

In the clip's opening seconds, William Adams is heard telling Hillary's mother, "Go get the belt. The big one. I'm going to spank her now." With belt in hand, he turns off the light and tries forcing his daughter to bend over the bed to be beaten, but she refuses.

"Lay down or I'll spank you in your (expletive) face," Adams screams while he lashes her with sweeping blows across the legs, ignoring her wails and pleas for him to stop.

A few minutes into the video, Hillary's mother barks at her to "turn over like a 16-year-old and take it! Like a grown woman!" For about a minute, the ordeal appears to have ended after both parents leave the room and shut the door. But the judge then storms back into the room and the beating resumes.

"Something told me to hold onto it until a much more perfect time," Hillary Adams said Thursday. "This was it, and I can't believe how much this has exploded."

Hillary Adams stressed that she did not post the video as revenge and does not want her father punished. Rather, she did it because she thinks it will force him to seek help, and because he has been harassing her and she thought posting the clip would make that stop.

"I told him about it, and he basically told me, in a text message, that he dared me to post it because he didn't believe that it was anything serious at all," Hillary Adams said. "So I did post it. Also I think it was a good time because I've distanced myself from his financial support more and more. I've been out of the house for a while and am beginning to support myself. If I did have to cut myself off my father because of this video, it wouldn't cause so much trouble as if when I was still a minor there."

William Adams has served as a judge in Aransas County since his daughter was 10.

"If my mother and I ever tried to speak out and say, 'Hey, there's something wrong here,' people wouldn't believe us or they'd go so far to call us liars," Hillary Adams said.

"Yeah. That's me. I lost my temper. I spanked her. Her mother was there. She wasn't hurt," said William Adams. "There is a story. It will come out in due time."

William Adams said in a statement that he questions the timing of the video being posted.

"Perhaps Hillary Adams should explain, if she felt she was raised by a tyrannical father, a claim shared with no one until five years after adulthood, why she insisted on living with her father and not her mother from the time of her parents' divorce, until she moved out on her own," the statement said. "Hillary Adams has been living on her own for some time, and has been an adult for almost six years, so why post the video in late 2011?"

William Adams said that his daughter recently dropped out of college. He said he told her that if she did not go back to school or do something with her life that he would reduce the financial support that he gave her, including taking away the Mercedes-Benz he purchased for her. William Adams said that's when his daughter posted the video.

"Hillary warned her father if he reduced her financial support, and took away her Mercedes automobile, which her father had provided, he would live to regret it. The post was then uploaded," the statement approved by William Adams said.

He said he has talked to his daughter since the release of the obscenity-filled video.

"I apologized to her," he said. "I really don't want to get into this right now. Because as you can see, my life's been made very difficult over this child."

William Adams, 51, said that the footage "looks worse than it is." Adams said he was simply disciplining his daughter for stealing.

Hillary Adams, 23, said the outpouring of support and encouragement she's received since posting the video online last week is tempered by the sadness that it's her father lashing her 17 times with a belt and threatening to beat her "into submission." The 8-minute video had been watched nearly 2 million times by Thursday morning.