A woman pleaded not guilty to a registrar at the Christchurch District Court on Thursday.

A woman has denied 12 child abuse charges alleging years of abuse, and the case is heading for trial.

The woman pleaded not guilty to a registrar at the Christchurch District Court on Thursday and was remanded on bail to a Crown case review hearing on January 29. She did not appear in court.

The woman was remanded without plea when she made her first court appearance on October 17.

She has no name suppression but Stuff has chosen not to name her to protect the victim.

The girl would have been aged about 5 when the alleged abuse began at two rural South Island locations. The charges span the years from 1998 to 2005.

The woman has been charged with assaulting the girl using a belt as a weapon, and intentionally injuring her.

Police allege she also ill-treated the girl when she was aged between 8 and 10, in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering, by pushing the girl's head under water in the bath.

It is alleged she caused unnecessary suffering by removing blankets from her bed and withholding food.

One charge alleges ill-treatment by pushing the girl's face into dog faeces, and another says the woman placed the sticky side of a sanitary pad near the girl's genital area and ripped it off causing the removal of the girl's pubic hair.