The woman provided a statement to be read aloud at a hearing at the County Court in Ballarat on Wednesday, where a 37-year-old man pleaded to indecent acts with a minor.

The man will not be named to avoid identifying the victim, who is his cousin.

"It is nearly impossible to put into words the daily trials I have faced and still face today," the woman said in her victim impact statement.

"He has forever tainted the happy, unproblematic and joyful childhood life that I was so deserving of."

The abuse occurred across 2004 to 2006, when the victim was six to eight years old and the offender was 18 to 20.

She said the trauma of the abuse was a daily struggle, having to "contend with this my entire life".

"The impact of his actions has managed to dictate the people who come into my life," the victim said.

"I want to form these relationships with ease, but the barrier is always there and it is tiring to work on this the entire time.

"I fear for the future... I worry about a time in the future if I decided to have children of my own, I worry about how protective and paranoid for their wellbeing I will become."

In the wake of the offending, the victim said she had also developed an eating disorder and an obsession with her personal appearance.

"All these years I have spent and the toll of holding this to myself, I can't explain how tiring this was to me," the victim said.

"I have had to seek constant help trying to get myself out of that place... I never wanted to allow this to dictate my life in that way.

"I am forced to sit in this dark pit until I can pull myself out of this on my own.

"At the end of the day despite the amount of support you receive you can't help but feel alone in this."

The court was told since the offending the 37-year-old man had since started a family, career and committed no subsequent offending.

A barrister acting for the man said his upbringing had led to a lack of maturity, normalising sexually explicit behaviours.

In a conversation prior to police pressing charges, the man had made admissions to the offending, the court heard.

Judge Liz Gaynor said the man's apparent remorse acted in his favour, as did his lack of criminal priors.

"It is his only offending, it is terrible offending but it is not accompanied by a criminal record," the judge said.

The matter was adjourned for Judge Gaynor to consider the man's sentence.

He is expected to receive jail time in combination with a community corrections order.

The man's barrister told the court imprisonment would be especially difficult, considering his background as a prison officer.

He will reappear in court on May 1.