Prosecutors were forced to drop a court case after a sheriff refused to allow the trial to be adjourned.
The case against Aydin Gundogdu had been rumbling on since August.
Depute fiscal Lisa Marshall told Perth Sheriff Court on Monday that an essential witness was not available due to illness.
She explained that the case was first adjourned in January “following a defence motion due to some late disclosure”.
She went on: “It was adjourned again in March, on a Crown motion, as a witness was not present.
“The situation today is that the complainer is not here despite being present at the last two trial dates.”
Defence agent Rosie Scott opposed the motion to set a new trial date for September, saying her client was suffering “some anxiety” and was struggling to obtain employment as a result.
Gundogdu, 28, of Nimmo Avenue, Perth, had been facing charges that between July 1 and August 12 last year he engaged in a course of conduct that caused a woman fear or alarm.
Sheriff Michael Fletcher deserted the case, saying: “I am being asked to adjourn this to a date which I anticipate might well be beyond a year from the time when this case commenced.
“That, in my view, is not a situation which can be described as a summary trial.”