A man appeared in Peterhead Sheriff Court accused of attempting to abduct a woman and attacking two men in the town’s Seagate area.
But on the same day Michael MacNeil, 42, denied committing the alleged attacks on April 20, the woman he was accused of trying to bundle into his car told Sheriff Andrew Miller she had lied to police.
The trial, which started at about 11.30am, adjourned at 4pm soon after her revelation.
Charlie Anne Ironside had told police officers that MacNeil punched her in the face and tried to get her into his car.
But under questioning from fiscal depute Anne MacDonald, she told the court she had been lying.
The 21-year-old said she had spent the night with friends drinking and smoking legal highs before heading to Seagate to purchase more of the latter.
Ms Ironside claimed her [then] boyfriend told her to blame MacNeil.
She said: “I was messed up on legal highs.
“I was in an abusive relationship. I think I said he punched me. I said to police he tried to get me in the car.”
MacNeil, who is being defended by solicitor Debbie Wilson, also denied threatening a group of children on 18 March while outside his home in Crimond.
Two boys and two girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were alleged to have seen MacNeil run his finger or fingers across his throat while looking in their direction in The Corse area of Crimond.
One witness, aged 17, said it was like MacNeil “was threatening my life and my friends”.
Another, also aged 17, added that MacNeil’s family and her aunt’s family, whom she was visiting at the time, had been feuding.
The trial continues.