Twenty-seven-year-old Amanda Michelle Smith of Rocky Point, was arrested Wednesday and is charged with four counts of felony child abuse.

The offenses took place in 2016 and 2017, according to a press release from Capt. James Rowell with the Pender County Sheriff’s Office.

Smith is charged with intentionally inflicting physical abuse resulting in serious mental injury to two children. The children were between the ages of 4 and 6 at the time, and Smith was their stepmother. 

According to the arrest warrants, charges involved slapping the children with force while the incidents were video recorded; forcing the children to take cold showers during potty training as a form of discipline; using physical force by waking the children with a slap to the face or by using a pillow; and punishing the children by putting hot sauce into their mouths and holding the mouths shut until the children swallowed.

Smith is currently being held in the Pender County Jail under a $200,000 secured bond.