How do I tell my parents about my new boyfriend they will disapprove of?

I've been seeing someone for many months, but it was never an exclusive or official thing, so I never bothered mentioning it to my parents. Now, it's been made official and exclusive. He is officially "my boyfriend", if you want to label it. I've always made up little excuses when I've gone to see him. Either said I was just going to meet a friend or just going out with a bunch of people. My parents are always inquisitive and like to know names and where and when I'm home and where I'm staying (nearly 18), so I admit I do tell white lies sometimes e.g. say I'm staying at a girl mates house. I just hate the questions. Anyway, the general vibe in my household has always been "you're under my care until you're 18, then you are a free adult and can make your own decisions". In other words, in terms of staying out and seeing people, it implies I can stay where I want and see who I want (within reason) as it's accepted I'm officially allowed to make my own decisions and they can't stop me. So, when I'm 18 I'm planning on being more open. Why 18, you ask? Why not now? My boyfriend for starters, is a bit older than me - early 20s. When my sister was 18, her boyfriend was 22 turned 23 and as far as I know my parents never questioned it. Our gap is slightly larger though. Another thing is, he had a bad beginning in life. And yes, it is going to sound very bad, so brace yourselves. Here goes: He was never very academic, got distracted in his school and got involved in buying/selling cannabis and once being caught smoking it on premises with his stupid friends. As a result, he was asked to leave the school but joined another one nearby. Turns out, this school has a worse reputation in my area and he didn't have much luck there either. He left at 16 after not even opening one book. Age 19-20ish, he met a girl who he proceeded to date for roughly 2 years. She told him she was pregnant. I think she thought they'd been together years, that he was the one, that a baby was the next step for them (there have been rumours amongst our mutual friends that she'd failed to tell him she had come off contraception, and they think she'd tried to conceive semi-intentially, and went around telling friends she wanted to be a mum). Anyway, a few weeks or months before she fell pregnant, things got bad and he had considered leaving her many times. He wasn't happy with her and thought it was time to end the plummeting relationship, but then the news left him feeling quilty and confused. He stayed with her until about 9 months after his son was born. Then, he couldn't stand the arguing and finally left her. He is on good terms with the ex, and has always seen his son 3 or 4 days a week. I then met him. A few months along, she began wanting him back. She turned a bit nasty, threatening to move to Spain with his son if he didn't get back with her. He made him feel like the most horrible person for being "that type of guy who breaks up a family". Naturally, when he told me this, I felt absolutely awful. I told him maybe he needed to give her another try for the sake of the son, and I didn't want to be any kind of home wrecker (I didn't actually know he had a son for many months - he never told me in risk of me saying I wanted to end things). He agreed to give her another go. It didn't last long, she constantly nagged him and had lots of built up anger. He told her it just wouldn't work and that everyone involved would be far happier in life if they weren't a couple. He got back in contact with me, and I told him that I wanted to continue seeing him on the condition he understood this was his decision, and that he had given his potential family another shot. Anyway, life has been great since then. He sees his son all the time, has a good relationship with the ex, I've met him a few times. He has a well paid and stable, impressive job as a mechanical engineer. He is a hard-working and highly self-motivated individual, and I've fallen in love with everything about him. His kindness, fun nature, genuine concern for others, thoughtfulness, the way his is with his son. He has, excuse the cliche, turned his life around. NOW, if you're still with me at this point. (thank you :) ), then I come back to my problem. If I tell my parents I'm dating a 24 year old young man, they may be able to overcome the age gap. You're probably thinking "okay, just don't tell them about the son and the history - that was about 10 years ago anyway! People change." Yes, I would so do just that! But his cousin is friends with my sister, and has taken it upon herself to tell my sister everything about him that I have just told you. Except, she made it sound worse. Much worse. On paper, I realise he might not sound like the best character to some. Perhaps his past character was an unattractive one, but he is now the best match I could ask for. He is a good person. I know the truth about his life, and now you do too. My sister then took it upon herself to tell me all about this guy in front of our parents, after seeing a Facebook picture of me and him together and asking if we were dating. I lied. However, it means, if I tell my parents that I have a boyfriend called so-and-so, who is in his early 20s, my sister will do some digging and it will eventually emerge that he is the guy who has a son and did all this bad stuff as a young kid. I would never, ever hear the end of it. Not telling them, however, means I have to lie throughout the whole summer about where I am, who I am with, where I am staying and who I'm going away with on weekend. If you've read all that, any advice would be really welcomed in terms of what I should do about my parents and family in this situation. I really want to it to be in the open, I just don't know if I could handle the potential stick and/or how much I should disclose at this point etc. Thank you.

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