What is the origin of the belief that Satan tortures the unsaved in Hell? There's a thought that Satan (the devil) tortures the unsaved in Hell.

For example, a brief search revealed a website wherein a member posted the following:


  I think of Satan more of a psycopath who wants people to follow him not God. He wants to seperate us from God and he will use any method he can to do it. However being a bitter bastard for what he is forced to live in he gets angry and takes out his anger on the populace of hell.


Even growing up, I was under the impression that the unsaved were tortured in Hell by Satan, and Satan himself ruled over Hell. Of course, now I know better, or so I think! Is there any biblical basis for the belief that Satan tortures the unsaved in Hell? If not, what is the origin of that belief?
There is no biblical support for Satan or any of his demons torturing people in Hell. Rather, the adversary, Satan is said to travel around the world (Job 1:7) and even to have access to God's presence (Job 1:6). In the gospel and Acts accounts, we find demonic figures not in Hell but on earth, dwelling in men (Matthew 12:22). Interestingly, in Matthew 12:43-45, Jesus gives us a behind-the-scenes picture of what happens to a spirit when it has been cast out of a man - it remains in this world! 

Satan still has access to God's throne. He is seen there as the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:7-10) who will be or has been (depending on eschatological chronology) cast down from heaven to earth. 

In the end, Satan and his demonic angels will be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to torment others, but to be tormented themselves (Revelation 20:7-10).

It's my unsubstantiated impression that such images of demons torturing people in Hell, especially a pointy-tailed man in a Red Devil suit, were the ideas of early painters who had to illustrate such places, and their imaginations went wild.