Kane Robert Mulvay, Joshua Trent Aiden Summers jailed for Brisbane business firebombings

Two men who torched an up-market hair salon and a florist in two Brisbane suburbs using homemade bombs, as revenge attacks, have been jailed. WATCH THE VIDEO

Two “mercenaries” who set fire to a hair salon and a florist in up-market Brisbane suburbs using homemade bombs, as revenge for the owner’s drug debts, have been jailed.

Kane Robert Mulvay and Joshua Trent Aiden Summers, who was 37 at the time, were in the Brisbane District Court on Friday where crown prosecutor Stephanie Gallagher described the pair’s arson of the two businesses in 2023 as “serious, premeditated, callous and brutal”.

The court heard that Mulvay, who was the principal of the two men, was hired by an unidentified man to torch a Balmoral florist, Bae’s Blooms, which was under renovation before it was due to open.

Bae’s Blooms was owned by the partner and the mother of Brisbane man Jaiden McKinless, 30, who allegedly owed a large drug debt, the court heard.

Mulvay at the barbershop on Oxford Street, Bulimba, early on May 17.

Mulvay told a mate in a text message saying that on June 14 he had gone to the florist and put an improvised explosive device made from a Coca-Cola can “packed tight with gunpowder, wrapped and then covered with napalm to spark the wick” on the front door.

He told the mate in the message that he “lit it and walked away”, but earlier he had “removed half the explosives” from the Coke can because there were a couple of people inside the florist.

The florist on Riding Rd, Balmoral, Brisbane. pic: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail

Fortunately the device did not detonate, so Mulvay returned six days later on June 20 with Summers at about 3am to try again.

Both wearing dark clothing, this time Mulvay used a bat to smash a window in the front door and they both entered through the back room, and Summers put two explosive devices on the floor and spread fuel.

A fireball erupted and travelled towards Summers, forcing him to escape through a smashed window, and Mulvay had to run through flames.

A month earlier on May 17, Mulvay also threw a molotov cocktail made from a wine bottle into a barbershop on Oxford Street, Bulimba around 4.40am.

The barbershop was “owned or at least run by” Mr McKinless, the court heard.

District Court Judge Brad Farr SC slammed Mulvay for his dangerous actions and sentenced him to a head sentence of seven years and six months with parole eligibility on August 26, 2026.

Kane Mulvay.

Mulvay pleaded guilty to nine charges including two counts of arson.

“It is through sheer good fortune and good luck that more damage and explosive devices did not detonate,” Judge Farr said.

“You were acting in a mercenary way,” he told Mulvay.

Summers, a father of one, was sentenced to five years and six months jail after he entered a guilty plea to eight charges including two counts of arson.

He is eligible for immediate parole because he has spent 597 days pre-sentence custody since he was arrested on July 5, 2023.

He previously did an electrical apprenticeship and was working at a farmers market on the Sunshine Coast.

“You involved yourself with enthusiasm, and did so for monetary reward, it was mercenary in that regard,” Judge Farr told him.

“It was extraordinarily dangerous behaviour,” he said.