A DUTCH man accused of tricking a woman into flying from her home in the UK to Amsterdam for a “pull a pig” joke has broken his silence, claiming is the victim of a “witch hunt”.

Devastated Sophie Stevenson said she was stood up at Amsterdam airport by Jesse Mateman, who sent her the message: “You were pigged”, The Sun reports.

He added two pig images to the text, plus a laughing face and wrote: “It was all a joke.”

But 21-year-old Mr Mateman now says he is the victim of a “witch hunt” as he revealed his family have been threatened.

“That whole story is fully invented,” he told Dutch website Metro.

“I do not know that whole game and nobody in my area. I’m just being broken here. After that piece on [Dutch blog] Geenstijl are my parents, my sister and I threatened. It’s a witch hunt.”

Ms Stevenson, 24, of Stoke, England, slept with Mr Mateman, 21, in what she called a “proper romance” after they met in Barcelona while caught up in August’s terror attack.

The traumatised pair had struck up a friendship while with pals at the Pension Solarium — a one minute walk from the horror attack that killed 13 people.

“We slept together in Barcelona and when I came back to the UK, we carried on talking every day,” Ms Stevenson told The Sun.

“We talked about having a long distance relationship.”

But Mr Mateman, who admitted to meeting Ms Stevenson in Barcelona, said they never slept together and “were not in love”.

He also said he never spoke to Ms Stevenson again after their first meeting in the Spanish city.

But Ms Stevenson, a bar supervisor, said she forked out $590 on a 650-kilometre trip to be with her lover in Amsterdam and was apparently stood up at the airport.

She flew from Manchester on September 29 and was messaging Mr Mateman just minutes before she took off.

But when she arrived in Amsterdam, she discovered he wasn’t there to pick her up as planned and was ignoring her calls.

Heartbroken Ms Stevenson waited for two hours at the airport and explained she “was really starting to panic and feel abandoned”.

She heard from him via his abusive messages six hours later at a hotel after making her own way there on a shuttle bus.

Ms Stevenson replied: “How could you be so cruel though!”

He promptly blocked her on social media, she said.

“Pulling a pig is where a guy tries to pull the fat, ugly girl. I felt sick,” Ms Stevenson said.

The 24-year-old added: “All my friends and family cannot believe someone could be so cruel.

“It’s one thing to have a joke, but this goes well beyond banter.”

After Mr Mateman sent Ms Stevenson the message, she headed back home the next morning.

“When I saw that message, I wanted to be sick,” she said.

“I was in a foreign country, on my own and the guy that I liked had just abandoned me.

“I replied and said ‘how could you be so cruel’ and all he did was block me. I just couldn’t believe it.”

She added: “I am furious that this happened and it’s so dangerous.

“I want people to know what happened to me so that this never happens to anyone else.”

Her mum and dad earlier told Sun Online they wanted to “kill” Mr Mateman for what he had apparently done to their daughter.

Sophie’s dad Andrew Stevenson said his daughter, who has been single for around 12 months, had been so excited about flying out meet Mr Mateman.

“As soon as I heard I wanted to go over there and find him,” the 53-year-old told Sun Online.

“It would be awful for it to happen to anybody, but for it to happen to my daughter is disgusting. It’s awful to think of.

“She is a beautiful, confident, gorgeous girl and how dare that b*****d do anything like this.”

Mr Stevenson said finding out about the “sick” game was worse than waiting to hear from his daughter during the terror attack.

Her mum Julie Stevenson, 50, revealed she wanted to “kill” the sick prankster for leaving her daughter heartbroken and devoid of confidence.

“I want to kill him. He’s really sick,” she told Sun Online.

“I certainly hope he has his comeuppance and realises what he has done. He can’t be allowed to get away with it.

“The police will say he has done nothing wrong but he has. Morally it’s deplorable how he treated my daughter.

“When she called me in floods of tears after waiting three hours at the airport I told her to come straight home.

“But the next flight she could get on wasn’t until the next day. I was sick with worry that night that she might do something to herself. She was in such a dark place.

“I have been living every moment of this with her and it’s really horrible.”

Mrs Stevenson explained how when Sophie had returned home from Barcelona, the pair spoke every single day and it seemed “very serious”.

Her excited daughter would run upstairs to chat to Mr Mateman and planned the trip to Amsterdam because he “couldn’t wait” to see her again.

“It’s unbelievable that he kept in daily contact with her to then leave her at the airport. The amount of planning to pull such a sick joke beggars belief,” Mrs Stevenson said.

“She was crying after three hours and just devastated when she got that message.

“It has completely knocked her confidence.

“Hopefully Sophie will get over this. She has been so unlucky to run into such a monster.”

The “Pull A Pig” game involves a group of blokes going out and trying to hook up with the most unattractive girl.

The “winner” is the fella who attracts the “ugliest” one.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission.