Scrap it, and more British cases would head to the European court. Nor would much change if the government fulfils its ambition to create a British Bill of Rights.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, analyzed a decade's worth of abusive head trauma cases in a New York health system. Of the 34 cases, six of the children died.

In NSW - with a population of just under seven million people - less than half of known cases of abusive head trauma in children result in prosecution of perpetrators.