Key Essendon witness on drug charges

A key witness in the Essendon Football Club's alleged doping scandal has been charged with drug offences.

Shane Charter has been charged with one count each of trafficking and possession of steroids, and a number of counts of possession a schedule four poison.

Charter, 46, was charged by the Purana Taskforce and is listed to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on November 3.

Charter, a former bodybuilder, is a key witness in the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority's case against the 34 past and present Essendon footballers alleged to have taken the banned substance Thymosin beta 4.