Outbreak of commonsense in South Australia

The story about the Kingsnorth protestors being served with an injunction to make them leave the ship they hi-jacked, reminds me of my Bright Idea that instead of pressing criminal charges, the owners of Kingsnorth ought to sue them for civil damages.

That way you don't have to worry about a jury falling for some sob-story or other (and you scoring a massive own-goal), and however nominal the damages, they will be a heck of a lot more than the protestors can afford, in the long run.

It appears that enterprising sheep exporters in South Australia did exactly that (or try this link) when an 'activist' contaminated the sheep feedlot.

Whether $70,000 fully compensates the exporters and whether it includes punitive damages, I do not know. Whether the 'activist' will ever pay up, I do not know either. But I guess that the possibility of this sort of outcome will weigh much more heavily on protestors' minds than the risk that they end up in prison for a week or two and hence become martyrs to [whatever] cause.