The father who beat up his daughter’s boyfriend after learning the two had had sex appeared on ABC’s “20/20” Friday, March 14, and spoke publicly about the incident for the first time. “So I hit him,” said Gilberto Soto, the girl’s father. “Do I regret what I did? No. Would I do it differently? Yes, I would, I would.

“Now? Take that kid, stick him in the car, tie a rope around his neck and go as fast as I could up and down the highways, every single highway there is,” Soto said, then clarified that he meant drag the boy at the end of a rope behind his car.

The show was called the “Age of Consent.” Soto, 38, is from Weare. Last fall his 15- 1/2-year-old daughter had sex with her then-17-year-old boyfriend, Damon Hadley. Hadley is 18 now.

When school officials caught the two cutting school, the girl alleged Hadley had raped her, according to authorities. Although she later admitted to police she lied, Hadley was charged with sexual assault because he admitted the two had had sex, and under state law, a person cannot consent to sex until the age of 16. Soto was charged with assault.

Both eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor simple assault; Soto was sentenced to 12 months in jail and Hadley to three months. Both sentences were suspended on condition of good behavior.

Soto told “20/20” he’s upset Hadley didn’t go to jail. “He should’ve done at least a year,” he said.

Asked if maybe his daughter lied about being raped because she was scared of her father, Soto replied, “My kids don’t have reason to be scared of me.”

Hadley’s lawyer said he hopes Soto will be charged with criminal threatening.

“It is my fervent hope that Soto be charged, convicted and incarcerated for these types of hateful and alarming comments that have no place in our society,” said Concord attorney George “Skip” Campbell.

He said Soto’s comment brings to mind the 1998 killing of James Byrd in Texas. Three men beat up Byrd, stripped him of his clothing, tied a chain around his waist and dragged him for 3 miles.

Lisa Hadley, Damon’s mother, said she’s worried for her son.

“I was worried for him that day in the nurse’s office after he got beat up ...,’’ Lisa Hadley said. “And then to hear him on national TV saying this. Yeah, I’m worried. He got away with what he did to my son.”

Damon Hadley remembers the day Soto beat him up. “I didn’t move at all, I just froze,” Damon said in an interview last month. “I didn’t know what to do. Her dad hit me. I was on the ground. I just remember him standing on top of me and hitting me.

“He kept saying, ‘Did you (have sex with) my daughter?’”